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AUTHOR: 


KNIGHT,  WILLIAM 


TITLE: 


ARCH  OF  TITUS  AND  THE 
SPOILS  OF  THE... 

PLACE: 

LONDON 

DA  TE : 

1867 


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II 


I 

Of 


THb:  ARCH  OF  TITUS  VESPASIANUS. 


1-K4)M    A    KI'.IUl  M»    LOrV    •»!     A    KKCKM     I'lK  )T(KiKAM, 


THE    ARCH    OF    TITUS 


AM) 


THE    SPOILS    OF    THE    TEMPLE, 


AN  HISTORICAL  AND  CRITICAL  LECTURE 


WITH  AUTHENTIC  II.LUSTRAI'IONS, 


BV 


WILLIAM  KNIGHT  MA. 

RECTOR   OF   ST.    MICHAEL's    BRISTOL    AND   CHAPLAIN   OF    THE   BLIND    ASYLUM, 
HONORARY    CANON    OF    BRISTOL   CATHEDRAL. 


\VHEN  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT  ASKED  PROFESSOR  GELLERT,  WHAT  HE  THOUGHT 
OF  JESUS  CHRIST,  GELLERT  IS  SAID  TO  HAVE  REPLIED,— WHAT  THINKS  YOUR  MAJESTY 
OF   THE   DESTRUCTION   OF   JERUSALEM? 


I 


LONDON : 
LONGMANS,  GREEN,  READER,  AND  DYER. 

1867. 


l.DNDON  : 

K.  CI.AY,    SON.    AND   TAYLOR,    PRINTERS, 

BKKAU   STREET    HII.L. 


5 

t 


PREFACE. 

T/i/s  Lecture  was  read  at  the  Bristol  Fitie  Arts  Academy^ 
in  aid  of  a  fmid  for  bui/di?ig  a  School-room  in  my  parish  ; 
and,  having  been  successful  in  that  i?istance,  I  have  been 
induced  to  publish  it,  with  some  enlargeitiefit,  a?id  with  the 
addition  of  the  ?nost  ijnportant  authorities,  in  behalf  of 
another  parochial  School-room;  tvhich,  I  am  happy  to  say, 
has  also  been  erected  by  the  subscriptiofis  contributed  to  this 
volume. 

I  trust,  however,  that  it  may  be  further  useful,  as  iin- 
foldijig  a  subject  of  cojisiderable  attraction  to  those  who  take 
an  interest  in  Biblical  a?itiquities,  a?id  especially  as  pre- 
sentijig  an  importaiit  illustration  of  our  Lord's  marvellous 
prophetic  prescience ;  a  subject  which  cannot  be  lightly 
regarded  by  those  who  feel,  as  Christians,  a  godly  jealousy 
for  the  truthful  ho7iour  of  their  Lord's  Word. 

Ln  vain  did  Titus  try  to  save  the  Temple ;  in  vain  did 
Julian  endeavour  to  rebuild  it:  the  Word  of  God  stood 
fast :  and,  if  77ien  call  in  question  its  veracity,  '  the  stone 
will  cry  out  of  the  wall '  in  defence  of  it,  as  indeed  it  has 
dotie  in  the  presetit  day.  The  Sculptures  of  Nitieveh  are 
indisputable  witnesses  to  the  historic  records  of  the  Old 
Testatnejit,  as  those  on  the  Arch  of  Titus  illustrate  the 
prophetic  pages  of  the  New. 

W.  K. 


1180/ 


8 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Arch  of  Titus  (from  a  recent  Photogram) 

Coin  of  Titus  (Gesner's  r/^^^««r//^) 

6" 

Titus'  Apotheosis  (Bartoli's  Adt}iirauda) ^ 

Keystone  (Desgodetz'  Edifices  Antiques) ^5 

Part  of  the  Frieze  (Bartoli's  ^^/w/>^?'/^<a;) . '5 

First  Tablet,  Titus  Triumphant  (Bartoli,  Z^/'^.) 79 

Second  Tablet,  the  Temple  Spoils  (Bartoli,/-^/./.) ^5 

Shewbread  Table  and  Trumpets  (Reland,  Z?^  5M/>)      .     •     •     •  97 

Seven-branched  Candlestick  (Reland, /^/^/.) '" 

Vespasian  Coins  (British  Museum) '^i 


Erratum— Pp.  i,  2,for  .\.\y.  63,  read  h.D.  y^. 


y 


SYNOPSIS. 


Our  Lord's  last  words  to  the  Jews,  i.-Prophecies  of  the  destruction 
of  the  Temple,  and  of  the  days  of  vengeance  on  Jerusalem,  2. 

Roman  governors  of  Jud^a— the  national  revolt,  3.— Cestius'  at- 
tempted suppression  and  defeat,  4. 

Vespasian's  mission  and  subjugation  of  Galilee,  5. -Imperial  changes 
at  Rome— Vespasian  Emperor,  6. 

The  war  resumed  by  Titus,  7.— His  advances  on  Jerusalem,  8. -Its 
circumvallation,  9. -The  Famine-Loss  of  the  Antonia  and  results, 
10,  II.— Our  Lord's  prescience  and  sympathy,  12.— The  Temple— its 
destruction  and  that  of  the  City,  13. -Foretold  by  our  Lord-attested 
byjosephus,  14,  15. 

The  captives  and  the  slain,  16.— The  conquest  great,  but  no  agno- 
men,  17.- Prisoners  and  spoils  sent  to  Rome,  18.— The  Triumph,  19. 

The  Arch,  20.— Its  Inscriptions,  21,  22.-Its  architectural  character- 
istics,  23.— The  Frieze,  24.— First  tablet,  Titus  triumphant,  25.- 
Second,  the  Temple  Spoils,  26.— Their  previous  history,  27.— The 
Table  and  its  memorial  cups,  28.— The  Trumpets,  their  form  and 
use,  29.— The  Candlestick,  its  structure  and  mystery,  30. 

General  inference,  31.— What  became  of  the  Spoils?  32,  33.— Their 
sojourn  at  Rome,  34,  35. —Their  transfer  into  Africa,  36,  37.— Thence 
to  Byzantium,  38,  39. 

The  Arch  a  witness,  40.— Subserves  a  purj3ose  alien  from  that  of  its 
authors,  41.— Its  Lessons  to  us,  42.— The  Romans  gone-thc  Jews 
surviving,  43. —To  what  end?  44. 


m 


mmmm 


THE   ARCH    OF   TITUS 


AND 


THE    SPOILS    OF   THE   TEMPLE. 


-"«>^- 


Paschal 
week. 

A.D.  6^, 


I.  In  our  Lord's  last  public  address  to  the  Jews,  o 
when  about  to  take  his  final  departure  from  the'  SS 

Temple,  He  tells  them  that  the  heaviest  woes  are 
hanging  over  them,-their  rulers,  their  teachers, 
themselves  and  their  metropoHs,-and  that  their 
House  would   be  left  unto  them  desolate;    that 
House  in  which  they  so  much  gloried,  which  He 
no  longer  calls  his  Father's  House,  but  theirs ;  foi 
the  Lord  was  about  to  withdraw  from  it  and  to 
give  It  up  to  ruin. 

,  '  Behold,'  said  He, '  I  send  unto  you  prophets, 
and  wise  men,  and  scribes ;  and  some  of  them  ye 
shall  kdl  and  crucify ;  and  some  of  them  ye  shall 
scourge  in  your  synagogues,  and  persecute  them 
from  cty  to  city  ;  that  upon  you  may  come  all  the 


B 


week. 
A.D.  63. 


P 

I 


2  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

Our  Lords  righteous   blood  shed  upon    the  earth,  from   the 

last  w^orvls    ,|    '  , 

tothejews.  blood  of  rightcous  Abel  unto  the  blood  of  Zacharias 
son  of  Barachias,  whom  ye  slew  between  the  sanc- 
tuary and  the  altar.  Verily,  I  say  unto  you.  All 
these  things  shall  come  upon  this  generation/  ^ 

And  yet  this  denunciation  was  mingled  with 
compassion,  which  broke  forth  in  those  farewell 
words  :  ^  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest 
the  prophets,  and  stonest  them  which  are  sent  unto 
thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  chil- 
dren together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not !  Behold,  your 
House  is  left  unto  you  desolate.^  For  I  say  unto 
you.  Ye  shall  not  see  me  henceforth,  till  ye  shall 
say,  Blessed  is  He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord.' 

With  these  words  our  Lord  closed  his  mission 
to  the  Jewish  rulers  and  people  :  all  his  subsequent 
addresses  were  delivered  to  his  disciples. 


^  Matt,  xxiii.  34 — 2)^. 

^  Qui  de  Templo  inter- 
pretantur  recte  agunt,  nam 
ab  eo  pendebat  totus  cultus 
Israeliticiis,  imo  ipsa  quoque 
respublica.     Praeterea  Tem- 


plum  Judseis  /car  iioxrjy  di- 
citur  n^n.  Schoettgen,  Jlorce 
Hebr.  et  Talm.  in  Matt,  xxii ; 
TfS.  Haec  interpretatio,  ob 
comma  39,  praeferenda  esse 
videtur.     Rosenmiiller  /;/  /. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 

2.  And  as  He  was  about  to  quit  the  Temple  some  Propiiedes 
of  them,  astonished  at  his  words,  exclaimed,  '  See  to  ^a^^^^ 

I  ciples. 

what  stones,  and  what  buildings  are  here ! '     For 
we  are  told  that  many  of  the  marble  blocks,  which 
were  used  in  the  construction  of  that  magnificent 
edifice,  were  more  than  forty  cubits  long.^     What, 
is  all  this  doomed  to  destruction  ;  this  House,  in 
which  we  and  our  fathers  have  worshipped,  reve- 
renced by  prophets  and  adorned  by  kings  ?     Yes, 
even  so ;  as  He  had  already  told  them,  when  He 
wept  over  the  impenitent  city.     '  For  the  days  are 
coming,  that  thine  enemies  shall  cast  a  trench  about 
thee,  and  shall  compass  thee  round,  and  keep  thee 
in  on  every  side,  and  shall  lay  thee  even  with  the 
ground,  and  thy  children  within  thee  ;  and  they 
shall   not  leave  in  thee  one  stone  upon  another, 
because  thou  knewest  not  the  time  of  thy  visita- 
tion.* 2 

They  had  called  Him  to  look  at  the  Templets  ofthede- 
grandeur  and  stability ;  He  calls  them  to  take  a  ofThf" 
very  different  view  of  it.     '  See  ye  not  all  these  ^^'"^^^* 
things  ?     Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  there  shall 
not  be  left  one  stone  upon  another  that  shall  not  be 
1  Josephus,  Bell.Jud.  v.  v.  6.  2  ^^^^^  ^ix.  43,  44. 

B  2 


of  the 
Temple. 


4  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

Of  the  de-    cast  down  : '  and  then,  on  their  reaching  the  Mount 

struction 

of  Olives,  whence  they  had  the  city  full  in  view,  in 
answer  to  the  question,  When  shall  these  things 
be,  and  what  shall  be  the  sign  of  thy  coming,  and 
of  the  end  of  the  world  ?  our  Lord  delivered  that 
great  prophecy  of  his  final  advent  in  power  and 
glory,  to  judge  the  quick  and  dead,  at  his  appear- 
ing and  his  kingdom,  and  of  his  previous  coming 
in  judgment  on  Jerusalem,  with  the  signs  of  her 
approaching  day  of  doom. 

In  the  first  place  He  charges  them — for  these 
prophecies  assume  the  form  of  warnings,  when 
addressed  to  his  disciples — to  beware  of  being 
deceived  by  false  Christs  and  false  prophets  ;  many 
of  whom  would  come  in  his  name.  He  then  tells 
them,  that  they  would  hear  of  wars  and  tumults, 
nation  against  nation,  and  kingdom  against  king- 
dom, but  that  the  end  would  not  be  yet :  then  that 
there  would  be  famines  and  pestilences,  and  earth- 
quakes, with  fearful  signs  and  sights  from  heaven ; 
yet  these  would  be  but  the  beginnings  of  sorrow  : 
then  that  his  disciples  would  be  delivered  up  to 
councils,  and  be  beaten  in  synagogues,  and  brought 
before  rulers;  but  that  the  Lord  would  be  with 


Of  the  days 
of  ven- 
geance on 
Jerusalem. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  5 

them  in  their  hour  of  peril.     In  the  meantime,  He  Ofthedays 
adds,  that  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  would  be  geance  on 

...  .  Jerusalem. 

preached    for   a   witness    throughout    the    Roman 
world  :  and  that,  in  coincidence  with  that  event, 
Jerusalem  would  be  encompassed  with  armies, — the 
abomination  of  desolation,   spoken  of  by   Daniel, 
standing  where  it  ought  not  on  holy  ground  :  that 
this  must  be  taken  by  his  disciples  as  a  warning 
to  flee  from  the  scene  of  approaching  tribulation  ; 
for  these  would  be  the  days  of  vengeance,  of  which 
the  Old  Testament  prophets  had  written, — such  days 
as  the  world  had  never  witnessed,  nor  ever  will  again 
in  all  time  :  that  Jerusalem  would  be  trodden  down 
by  the  Gentiles ;  that  her  people  would  fall  by  the 
edge  of  the  sword,  and  be  led  away  captive  into  all 
nations :  and  He  concludes  by  predicting  that  the 
eagles  of  the  conquerors  would  seize   upon   the 
carcase  of  their  fallen  commonwealth.^ 

Such  is  the  sum  of  those  great  prophecies,  of  The  Arch 
which  we  have  in  the  Arch  of  Titus  an  important  and'expo- 
witness  and  expositor  ;    that  is,   of  the  event   in 
which  they  all  converge  :  and  in  Josephus'  History 
of  the  Jewish  War  we  have  a  testimony,  no  less 
1  Matt  xxiv.     Mark  xiii.     Ljike  xxi. 


6  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

The  Arch    Unexceptionable  ;  for  not  only  was  he  present,  as  a 

a  witness 

and  expo-    leader  or  as  a  captive,  throughout  the  whole  of  the 

sitor. 

great  conflict,  but  he  could  have  had  no  wish  to 
subserve  that  cause  to  which   his  History  has  so 
largely  contributed. 
Roman  3'    When  our  Lord   uttered    these  predictions 

Governors,    y    j  i      j    i 

^  j^  Judaea  had  become  a  part  of  a  Roman  province, 
33—64  and  till  the  third  year  after  the  Ascension  was 
under  the  government  of  Pilate.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  seven  other  procurators  in  the  course 
of  the  next  thirty  years ;  under  whom  the  Jews 
had  much  to  endure  in  struggling  to  regain 
their  national  independence.  Two  of  these  rulers, 
Felix  and  Florus,  have  been  deeply  branded  by 
their  own  historian  for  malversation  in  their  high 
office ;  ^  though  they  were  not  the  only  ones, 
according  to  Josephus,  who  abused  their  authority 
to  the  basest  purposes.  In  fact,  the  whole  history 
of  this  procuratorship,  with  the  exception  chiefly 
of  the  early  part  of  it,  is  but  a  record  of  oppression 
and  extortion,  which  rose  at  length  to  so  intolerable 
a  height,  as  to  drive  the  Jews  into  a  desperate 
resistance  to  the  overwhelming  power  of  Rome. 

^  Tacitus,  His/,  v.  x.  ii. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  7 

The  flames  of  the  revolt  broke  out  at  Cassarea,  Outbreak 
the  head-quarters  of  the  Roman  Government,  on  RevoU. 
Nero's  conferring  its  municipal  privileges  on  the    ^  ^^^' 
Syrian   Gentiles    to    the   exclusion  of  the  Jews.  ^ 
This  was  a  great  and  grievous  wrong.     A  contest 
then  arose  there  about  a  synagogue  and  an  inter- 
ference with  the  Jewish  worship,  which  was  quickly 
followed,  in  that  and  other  places,  by  tumults  and 
conflicts  of  various  kinds ;  sometimes  traceable  to 
Roman  violence,  in  others  to  the  blind  and  reckless 
fury  of  the  Zealots,  often  to  the  state  of  the  Jewish 
mind  in  general,  maddened  by  the  falling  fortunes 
of  their  country.     I  can  but  glance  at  these  events, 
so  far  as  the  subject  of  my  Lecture  may  require. 

Florus,  instead  of  vindicating  the  Jews,  in  the  Slighted  by 

Florus. 

case  just  mentioned  at  Caesar ea,  took  a  bribe  to 
protect  them,  and  left  the  city.  Then,  under 
pretext  of  the  emperor's  service,  he  plundered 
the  Temple  treasury  at  Jerusalem,  and  on  this 
exciting  a  violent  disturbance,  he  broke  into 
houses,  massacred  their  inmates,  scourged  and  even 
crucified  some  of  the  chief  citizens;  and,  after 
having  slaughtered,  in  a  collision  with  his  soldiers, 

^  Bell.Jud.  II.  xiv.  4. 


8 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Urged  on 
by  the 
Zealots. 

Aug. 

A.D.    66. 


a  large  number  of  the  irritated  populace,  he  re- 
turned to  his  residence  at  Caesarea.^ 

After  this  an  effort  was  made  by  Agrippa  to 
induce  the  people  to  submit  to  Florus,  till   the 
emperor  should  send  them  a  better  ruler ;  but  they 
rejected  his  advice  with  scorn  and  violence:  nay, 
more,  the  priests  were  persuaded  by  the  Zealots  to 
refuse  the  admission  of  any  gift  or  sacrifice  that 
might   be  offered  to  the  Temple  by  a  foreigner. 
This  was  denounced  by  the  peace-party  as  nothing 
less  than  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  emperor, 
for  whom  they  had  been  used  to  offer  daily  sacri- 
fice, and  as  branding  also  their  city  with  impiety ;  ^ 
for  the  practice  of  receiving  ofi^erings  from  foreign 
princes  was  of  long  standing  in  the  Jewish  Temple, 
and    was    expressly    sanctioned    by    the    law    of 
Moses. '    But  it  was  vain  to  reason  with  the  men  of 
this  party.     Florus  was  informed  of  the  state  of 
the  city ;  but  so  little  did  he  care  for  ito  distrac 
tions  that  the  intelligence  was  welcome  news  to 
him.    These  tumults  served  to  screen  his  atrocities, 
and  to  prevent  complaints  against  him  being  sent 

1  Bell,  J  ml  II.  xiv.  2  /^y^/  jj  ^^.. 

^  Numbers  xv.  14 — 16. 


*fi 


^ 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  9 

to  Rome.^      Agrippa,  from  a  wish  to  serve  both  urged  on 
nations,  sent  a  large  body  of  cavalry  to  keep  the  zLiotl 
peace  ;    but    they    could    not    stand    against   the       '^"!' 

^  A.D.    66. 

Zealots,  who  did  not  scruple  to  increase  their  power 
by  the  introduction  of  many  of  the  sicars  or  bri- 
gands, who    then    infested    the    country   in    great 
numbers.     With  these  they  proceeded  to  various 
acts  of  violence.    They  destroyed  Agrippa's  palace 
and   the  high   priest's    house.      They    burnt   the 
public  records  and  the  debtors'  contracts.     They 
massacred  the  garrison  of  the  great  fortress  of  the 
Antonia,  at  the  north-west  angle  of  the  Temple 
platform ;  and,  after  putting  down  the  rival  band 
of  Manahem,  they  slaughtered,  under  a  pledge  of 
protection,  the  guards  that  had  fled  to  the  Royal 
Towers,    with    the  single    exception   of  Metilius, 
their  commander,  who  was  spared  on  his  engaging 
to  become  a  Jew.^ 

On    the    same    day    the    Gentiles    in    C^sarea  other 
slaughtered  all  its  Jewish  population,  to  the  num-  cTarea'' 
ber  of  more  than  twenty  thousand;    an  atrocity 
which  so  roused  the  Jews  in  those  quarters,  that, 
forming    separate    bands    for   the    purpose,    they 


^  Bell  Jtal  II.  xiv.  3. 


^  Ibid.  II.  xvii. 


lO 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Other        fiercely  attacked  the  Gentile  population,  while  the 

tumults  at  ^  . 

Ccesarea.  Gentilcs  as  fiercely  retorted  upon  them ;  nation 
A  i/ 66  against  nation,  as  our  Lord  had  predicted  amongst 
the  signs  of  the  coming  judgments  on  Jerusalem  ; 
till  every  town,  according  to  Josephus,  had  be- 
come, as  it  were,  two  hostile  camps.  At  length 
the  Syrian  president,  Cestius  Callus,  deeming  it 
imprudent  to  be  longer  inactive,  while  the  Jews 
in  his  province  were  everywhere  in  arms,  advanced 
from  Antioch  with  the  twelfth  legion  and  a  large 
amount  of  other  troops ;  and  sending  detachments 
to  Zabulon  and  Joppa,  and  into  Lower  Galilee  and 
Narbatene,  he  checked  the  insurrection  in  all  those 
places,  and  re-assembled  his  forces  at  Cassarea.^ 

Cestius'ad-       4.    Thcnce    he    advanced    to    Bethhoron    and 

vanceand  1111/- 

repulse.       Gibcon.-^     There  he  was  met  by  a  large  body  of 

Oct 

A  u  66  J^^^y  under  Simon,  son  of  Gioras,  who  fell  upon 
the  Romans  with  great  fury,  and  drove  them  back 
with  considerable  loss.  Cestius,  however,  soon 
rallied  and  advanced,  and  pitched  his  camp  upon 
Scopus,  about  a  mile  to  the  north  of  Jerusalem ; 


^  Bell.  Jud.  II.  xviii. 
2  In  Josephus,  Bell.Jiid.  11. 
xix.  I,  it  is  ra/5a<o  :  ])iit  there 


seems,  according  to  Reland, 
Palcest.  vol.  ii.  s.  v.  Gibeon,  to 
be  no  doubt  of  their  identity. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


II 


and,  attacking  the  Jews  with  all  his  force,  pursued  Cestius'ad- 

vance  and 

them  even  to  the  gates  of  the  city,  and  established  r^T^ise. 

Oct. 

himself  within  the  outer  wall.  And  now,  at  least  ^.d.  66. 
in  the  judgment  of  Josephus,  Cestius  might  have 
taken  the  city,  and  have  brought  the  war  at  once  to 
a  close,  had  he  not  been  prevented  by  Florus,  who 
had  no  wish  to  see  the  war  at  an  end.  After 
waiting,  however,  for  a  few  days,  without  effecting 
anything  decisive,  he  drew  off  his  troops,  and  re- 
tired to  Scopus,  whilst  the  Jews  sallied  forth  and 
harassed  his  retreat.^ 

The  next  day  Cestius,  with  the  Jews  in  pursuit  Battle  of 

^  I  .  1       1   1  •      r  Bethhoron. 

or  him,  reached  his  former  encampment  at  Gibeon.  Nov. 
Thence  he  was  compelled  to  retreat  to  Bethhoron;  ^'^'  ^^' 
and  there  his  army  must  have  utterly  perished, 
driven  with  slaughter  down  the  deep  ravine,  but 
that,  under  cover  of  the  night,  he  succeeded  in 
effecting  his  escape  to  Antipatris,  with  the  loss  of 
more  than  five  thousand  men,  and  of  all  his 
military  engines;  which  were  taken  to  Jerusalem 
and  turned  against  the  Romans  in  the  course  of  the 
ensuing  siege. ^ 

It  is  remarkable  that  this  Bethhoron  is  the  spot 


^  Bell.  Jud.  II.  xix.  i — 5. 


-  Ibid.  II.  xix.  7 — 9. 


12 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Battle  of 
]5ethhoron, 

Nov. 

A.D.  66. 


Many  quit 
the  city. 


where  the  Jews  obtained  their  first  great  victory 
over  the  five  confederate  kings  of  Canaan,  which 
led  to  their  conquest  of  the  whole  country.  This 
victory  over  Cestius  was  their  last,  at  an  interval 
of  nearly  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  on  the  eve  of 
their  expulsion  from  the  land  of  their  fathers. 

Josephus  remarks  upon  these  events,  that  if 
Cestius  had  then  taken  the  city,  the  Temple  would 
probably  have  survived ;  but  that,  owing  as  he 
thinks  to  the  people's  wickedness,  the  Lord  was 
even  then  so  estranged  from  his  sanctuary,  that  He 
hindered  the  war  from  coming  to  a  close.  May  we 
not  suppose,  without  presumption,  that  He  had  also, 
in  his  gracious  providence,  other  objects  in  view  ? 
For  after  this  defeat  of  Cestius  many  of  the  more 
respectable  Jews  abandoned  the  city,  as  a  sinking 
ship ;  and  many  Christians  did  the  same,  acting  on 
the  warning  which  the  Lord  had  given  them,  and 
in  apprehension  of  the  coming  storm. ^ 


^     McTCt  Si  TTJy  KcCTTtOV  (TVf.1- 
(fiopav     TToXXoL     TWV     CTTt^ajCOV 

'loL'Satwv,   wnrep  ^airritpixivq^; 
V€a>9,    aTT€vi]')(OVTO     T^9     TToAco)?. 

Bell  Jiid.  Ti   xix.  6.     These 
Jews,  who  '  swam,'  as  it  were, 


out  of  the  city,  are  supposed 
to  be  the  '  strangers  '  whom 
St.  John  speaks  of  in  his 
Third  Epistle ;  who  had  mi- 
grated with  him  at  this  crisis 
into  Asia  Minor ;  for  whom 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


13 


5.   For  now,  encouraged   by  this  victory  over  vespj 


sian  s 


Cestius,  the  revolt  began  to  assume  a  more  impor-  mission, 
tant  character,  under  leaders  of  great  ability  ;  ^  j^  ^^ 
especially  Josephus,  who  had  under  his  command 
the  strong  town  of  Gamala,  on  the  east  of  the 
Lake,  and  who  was  also  president  of  both  Galilees  :  ^ 
and,  in  short,  so  important  did  the  revolt  appear 
at  Rome,  that  Vespasian,  who  had  just  returned 
from  Germany  and  Britain,  was  sent  by  Nero  to 
put  it  down ;  and  in  a  few  months  was  joined  by 
Titus,  with  the  fifteenth  legion  and  other  reinforce- 
ments ;  forming  altogether  an  army  of  s^xty 
thousand  men.^ 


y 


As  soon  as  the  troops  were  organized  at  Ptole-  Fail  of 

(jadaraand 

mais,  they  advanced  into  the  interior,  and  burnt  the  Jotapata. 
town  of  Gadara,  in  revenge  of  outrages  committed 
against  Cestius  ;  and,  after  a  siege  of  forty  days, 
they  succeeded  in  taking  Jotapata,  with  enormous 
slaughter  and  a  multitude  of  prisoners ;  amongst 
whom  was  their  leader,  Josephus ;  who  afterwards 


he  pleads  so  earnestly  with 
Gaius,  and  who  were  pro- 
bably soon  received  into  the 
Christian  Church. — Lampe's 


Comuient.    in  Joan.   vol.    i. 
Proleg.  I.  VII.  xvi. 

^  Bell.  Jiid.  III.  iii. 

2  Ibid.  III.  iv. 


II 


THE  ARCH   OF  TITUS 


Subjuga- 
tion of 
Galilee. 

Autumn, 

A.D.  67. 


became  a  great  favourite  of  Vespasian,  and  even 
adopted  the  Flavian  name/ 

Then  other  towns  surrendered  to  the  Romans. 
Joppa,  now  again  in  revolt,  was  destroyed.  Tibe- 
rias, on  the  Lake,  submitted  to  Vespasian,  and 
Tarichasa,  at  its  south-west  corner,  was  taken  by- 
Titus  after  a  very  hard  contest,  and  its  vast  popu- 
lation slaughtered  or  sold  :  a  conquest  which  was 
considered  of  so  much  importance  as  to  call  for 
special  notice  amongst  the  sculptures  on  the  Arch. 
After  this  and  other  bloody  conflicts  and  captures, 
all  Galilee,  with  Gischala,  its  last  survivor,  sur- 
rendered to  the  Roman  arms.^ 

In  the  meantime,  Jerusalem  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  three  fierce  rival  factions,  and  was  suffer- 
ing especially  from  the  fury  of  the  Zealots ;  who, 
whilst  denouncing  all  others  as  enemies  of  their 
country,  were  themselves  chief  agents  of  its  ruin."^ 

6.  Vespasian  now  began  to  turn  his  attention  to 
A.D.  67, 68.  the  Trans-jordanic  towns  and  to  the  south,  and 
had  indeed  subdued,  with  the  exception  of  Jeru- 
salem, all  the  most  important  places  in  those 
quarters,  when  tidings  reached  him  of  the  death 
'  Bell.  Jud.  in.  vii.  viii.       ^  //;;V/^  ju,  ix.  x.       '^  Ibid.  iv.  vi. 


Factions  in 
Jerusalem. 


Changes  at 
Rome. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


15 


of  Nero,  and  of  Galba's  accession  to  the  throne. 
This  induced  him  to  defer  all  further  active  mea- 
sures, whilst  he  sent  Titus  to  congratulate  the  new 
emperor,  and  to  receive  his  commands  in  reference 
to  the  war.^ 

Again,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  he  began  Vespasian 

Emperor. 

to  put  the  army  in  motion,  when  the  news  arrived  juiy^ 
of  the  deposition  of  Vitellius,  who  had  succeeded  ^'^'  ^^' 
Galba  and  Otho.  Upon  this  the  legions  in  Judasa 
and  Egypt  declared  for  Vespasian's  elevation  to 
the  empire ;  and  accordingly,  sending  Titus  to 
reduce  the  Jewish  capital,  he  himself  set  out  for 
Rome.^ 

7.  In   consequence  of  these   imperial  changes,  Titus  on 

Scopus. 

the  war  was  suspended  for  nearly  a  year ;  but  this 
was  no  relief  to  the  distracted  city,  where  faction 
raged  more  than  ever  under  Simon,  John,  and 
Eleazar ;  the  Assassin,  the  Tyrant,  and  the  Zealot, 
as  they  have  been  called.  Simon  had  possession 
of  the  Upper  town,  John  of  the  Lower  town 
or  Acra,  and  Eleazar  of  the  Temple  platform  ; 
and  thence  they  were  carrying  on  their  mutual 
assaults,  when  Titus  appeared  upon  the  heights 


Spring, 

A.D.  70. 


1  BelLJud.  IV.  viii.  ix. 


2  Ibid.  IV.  xi. 


i6 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


17 


Titus  on 
Scopus. 

Spring, 

A.D.   70 


The  abo- 
mination of 


m 


near  Jerusalem,  with  four  legions  and  a  large  body 
of  auxiliaries/ 

Now  it  was  time,  if  not  before,  for  all  that  would 
escape  from  the  great  impending  tribulation  to 
flee  to  the  mountains,  as  the  Lord  had  charged 
them;  when  they  should  see  Jerusalem  encom- 
passed with  armies ;  ^  the  abomination  of  desolation 
on  holy  ground.' " 

This  portentous  phrase,  or  at  least  its  equivalent, 
desolation,  ^^g  first  applied  to  the  desecration  of  the  Temple, 
when  Antiochus  set  up  in  it  the  statue  of  Jupiter.^ 
Here  it  probably  refers  to  the  Roman  standards, 
with  their  tutelary  images  of  gods  and  emperors, 
surmounted  by  an  eagle  grasping  the  thunderbolt, 
which  were  afterwards  brought  into  the  Temple  by 
Titus ;  and  which  some  writers  on  the  prophecy 
have  regarded  as  the  main  event  referred  to  in  our 
Lord's  words.  True  it  is,  that  act  of  Titus,  which 
we  shall  presently  have  to  notice,  was  ^  the  consum- 
mation of  that  desolation,'  which  he  was  permitted  to 
bring  upon  God's  House ;  but  it  was  rather  to  the 

1  Bell.  Jud.  V.  i. — iii.  "  2  Maccab.  i.  54,  p.  49. 

2  Matt. xxiY.i^,  16.  Mark      Cotton's  ed.  3  Maccab.  vi.  2, 
xiii.  14;  \vithZ///Cvxxi.  20,  2T.      p.  170.     Dan.YA.i^\. 


appearing  of  the  Roman  eagles,  at  the  head  of  their  The 
legions,  near  the  city,  rivalling  the  Temple  of  the  camping. 
God  of  Israel,  that  our  Lord  applied  the  language 
of  the  prophet;^  for  the  whole  territory,  and  espe- 
cially Mount  Olivet,  on  which  He  was  standing 
when  He  uttered  the  prophecy,  and  on  which  the 
tenth  legion  was  afterwards  encamped,  was  con- 
sidered by  the  Jews  as  holy  ground.^  As  objects 
which  the  Romans  were  in  the  practice  of  wor- 
shipping, these  eagles  were  an  abomination  to 
the  Jews  ;  as  standards  round  which  the  soldiers 
rallied,  they  might  be  called  *  the  abomination 
that  maketh  desolate  : '  the  Romans  called  them 
their  gods  of  battle.^     Their  appearance  with  *  the 


^  *Talia  signa  Titus  con- 
spicua  in  castris  suis  po- 
suit,  quasi  templum  Templo 
Hierosolymitano  contrarium. 
Nam  et  Tacitus  alibi  ita 
loquitur ;  Fulgentibus  aqui- 
lis  ?ignisque  et  simulacris 
Deum,  in  modum  templi.' — 
Grotius,  Annotat.  ad  Matt. 
xxiv.  15. 

'^  Bengel,  on  Matt,  xxiv. 
1 5  ;  I  Maccab.  x.  3  t  ;  Bell, 
yud.  V.  u.  ni. 


^  *  Religio  Roraanorum,' 
says  Tertullian,  'tota  Cas- 
trensis  signa  veneratur,  signa 
jurat,  signa  omnibus  Deis 
praeponit.' — Apol.  adv.  Genies, 
xvii.  Thus  Antony  is  re- 
presented by  Tacitus  as 
imploring  their  help  :  '  Con- 
versus  ad  signa  et  bellorum 
Deos  orabat.' — Hist.  iv.  x. 
And  Germanicus  is  said  to 
have  exhorted  his  soldiers : 
*  Irent,    sequerenturquc   Ro- 


i8 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


19 


The 

legions  en« 
camping. 


I 


legions  encompassing  Jerusalem/  was  to  be  a  sign 
to  our  Lord's  disciples  to  make  good  their  flight 
from  the  devoted  city.^  Many  had  fled  on  the 
invasion  of  Cestius,  though  it  did  not  reach  the 
terms  of  our  Lord's  prophecy.  Now  the  disciples 
could  not  doubt  that  the  days  of  vengeance  were 
near  at  hand;  and  in  following  this  and  other 
monitions,— especially  the  brief  interval  then 
aflx)rded  them,  and  which  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  circumstances  of  the  crisis, — they  fled 
to  Pella,  on  the  mountain  slopes  of  Gilead ;  which, 
as  under  Agrippa,  and  in  alliance  with  the  em- 
peror, became  their  chief  asylum  in  the  great 
catastrophe.^ 


manas  aves,  propria  legio- 
num  numina.' — AnnaL  11. 
xvii. 

^    KvKXoVJJLivTjV    VTTO     (TTparo- 

TTcSwv.  Raphel  notices  kvk- 
Xov^kvrjv  as  comprehending 
the  whole  time  of  investing 
the  city,  and  or/oaTOTrcSa  as 
then  in  use  for  Roman  le- 
gions.— Annotat.  in  Luc.  xxi. 


20. 


2  This   well-known    inter- 


pretation, which  is  adopted 
by  Grotius,  Wetstein,  Bengel, 
Newcome,Lange,  and  others, 
results  from  comparing  Matt. 
xxiv.  15,  16,  with  Luke  xxi. 
20,  21.  It  has,  hovi^ever, 
been  questioned  in  two  of 
the  most  important  recent 
commentaries ;  but  not,  as  it 
appears  to  me,  with  success, 
(i)  It  is  objected  that  to 
/JScAvy/Att  must  mean  a  pro- 


8.  Titus'  first  object,  on  arriving  at  Jerusalem,  tuuV^ 
was  to  ascertain  the  inclinations  of  the  Jews ;  for  advance. 


fanation  by  the  Jews  them- 
selves.     But    the    word    is 
applied,   as   we   have   seen, 
I  Maccab.  i.  54,  to  a  statue 
which  was  set  up  by  heathen 
hands;  and  Josephus  applies 
Dan.  ix.  27,  to  the  desola- 
tion by  the  Romans,  Antiq. 
x.  xi.     BScXvyfta  is  defined 
by  Cyril  Alex,  in  Schleusner, 
Lex.    Vet.   Test.  :  Trpa^ts  Trapa 
Tov    TrpocrrjKOVTa    Xoyov    irpar- 
rofievrj,    Kal    ttolv    ctScaAoi',    Kat 
Tray   eKTvmofJLa   avOpojirov   ovro) 
tKaXciro  Trapa  Toi;8atots.      (2) 
It  is  objected  that  the  Ro- 
man eagles  could  be  no  sign 
to   the   Jews,   having    been 
seen  by  them  on  holy  ground 
for  many  years,  and  even  at 
the  time  when  the  prophecy 
was  uttered.     On   the   con- 
trary, we  are  told  by  Josephus 
that,  when  at  peace  with  the 
Jews,  the  Romans  never  used 
to  take  their  idol  standards 
into  Jerusalem,  Antiq.  xviii. 
iii. ;  that  when  Pilate  did  so 
he  was  obliged  immediately 


to  remand  them  to  Caesarea, 
Ibid,   and  Bell.  Jud.  11.  ix. ; 
and  that  when  Vitellius  was 
about     to     march     through 
Judaea,  soon  after  our  Lord 
delivered  this  prophecy,  he 
sent  his   forces   by  another 
route,   in   deference   to   the 
representations  of  the  Jews, 
who  said   that  the   laws  of 
their     country     would     not 
tolerate  the  presence  of  these 
idols.     Ajittq.   xviii.  V.     (3) 
It    is    objected    that    t6t^o% 
aytos   can    mean    only    the 
Temple.     But  is   there   not 
here  an  obvious  distinction 
between  tottos  dytos  and  to 
tcpoV  ?     Our  Lord's   citation 
is   from   Dan.    LXX.    Cod. 
Alex.    ix.    27  :  *E7rt   ro    Upov 
P/BiXvyfia  tujv  €pr)[jL<i)(T€(i)V  ccrrat. 
Instead,  however,  of  eirl  to 
Upov,  we  have  the  indefinite 
€u  TOTTO)  dyiio.     The  disciples 
were    not    to   wait    till    the 
fiSeXvyfia    was    cttI    to    Upov, 
then   it   would   be  too   late 
to   fly;    but   as   soon    as  it 


c  2 


20 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


21 


Titus' 

further 

advance. 


he  had  been  told  that  they  were  desirous  of  peace ; 
but  on  his  attempting  to  take  a  survey  of  the  city, 
he  was  surrounded  by  a  body  of  Jewish  soldiers, 
and  escaped  with  difficulty  out  of  their  hands.^ 
At  length  he  began  to  bring  his  legions  nearer, 
which  induced  the  Jewish  factions  for  a  while  to 
unite,  and  to  join  in  frequent  sallies  against  the 
common  enemy  ;  but  they  were  soon  again  involved 
in  bloody  strife,  which  ended  in  the  overthrow  of 
Eleazar's  party,  and  in  John's  obtaining  possession 
of  the  Temple  platform:  conduct  so  prevalent 
throughout  the  siege,  as  to  give  some  colour  to 
the  remark  of  Josephus :  '  That  sedition  subdued 
the  city,  and  the  Romans  the  sedition ;  a  sedition 
much  stronger  than  her  walls/  ^ 

appeared  h  toVo)  dylco,  they  to  Agrippa's  Jnclination^to 
were  to  depart.  (4)  No 
other  fulfilment  of  the  pro- 
phecy has  been  suggested 
which  appears  to  be  satis- 
factory to  the  judgment  even 
of  the  objectors.  (5)  As  to 
the  disciples'  flight  to  Pella, 
see  Eusebius,  Hisf.  Eccl. 
III.  V. ;  Epiphanius,  De  Men- 
suris,  XV.,   and  Dean  Stan- 


The  siege  meanwhile  was  earnestly  prosecuted.  The  city 

invested. 


favour  them,  Townson's  Dis- 
courses^ IV.  V. ;  as  to  their 
final  opportunity  of  escape, 
and  for  a  comprehensive 
view  of  this  interpretation, 
Abp.  Newcome,  On  Our 
Lord's  Conduct^  iii.  i.  pp. 
219,  220. 

1  Bell.  Jud.  v.  ii. 

2  ^\jX     yap,    o5s    Ti]V    fiev 


Titus  pitched  his  camp  on  Scopus,  where  Cestius 
had  encamped  three  years  before :  the  tenth  legion 
occupied  Mount  Olivet,  and  other  forces  were 
stationed  on  the  west.  And  as  this  was  now  the 
paschal  season  the  city  was  unusually  full.  Jo- 
sephus reckons  that  there  might  have  been  in  it 
more  than  two  millions  seven  hundred  thousand 
souls,  because  more  than  that  number  are  said 
to  have  been  there  at  a  paschal  census  a  few  years 
previous.^  Simon  had  still  possession  of  the  Upper 
town,  with  about  fifteen  thousand  soldiers ;  John 
held  the  Temple  with  about  seven  thousand ;  and 


ley's   Palestine,   c.   viii. ;   as     ttoXlv  >)   orTao-ts,   *Fu)fxaioL   8< 


clXov  TTJv  oracrtv,  rprcp  yv  iroXv 
Twv  T€i)((x)y  d;(vpa)Tepa. — Bell. 
Jud.  v.  vi. 

^  A  rough,  and  it  may 
be  an  exaggerated  estimate, 
founded  on  the  number  of 
Iambs  which  are  said  to  have 
been  offered  at  the  pass- 
over,  A.D.  63,  of  which  an 
account  was  taken  by  order 
of  Cestius.  According  to  one 
manuscript  they  amounted 
to  256,000;  according  to 
another,  to  255,600.     There 


were  probably  at  least  ten 
partakers  of  each  lamb,  and, 
in  addition  to  these,  there 
were  a  great  many  other 
persons  who  were  cere- 
monially unfit.  Bell.  Jud. 
VI.  ix.  It  should  also  be 
borne  in  mind  that,  at  this 
great  festival,  the  suburbs 
of  the  city  were  generally 
covered  with  tents  and  other 
temporary  structures,  for  the 
reception  of  the  multitudes 
who  frequented  it. 


April, 
A.D.  70. 


23 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


1  : 


t 


\ 


ii 


on  Ophel,  the  southern  ridge  of  Mount  Moriah, 
and  in  the  Valley  of  the  Tyropceon,  they  waged 
their  bloody  conflicts  from  day  to  day.^ 
Titus  takes  Titus,  having  completed  his  arrangements,  at- 
waiir^"^""^  tacked  the  outer  wall  of  the  city,  which  soon  gave 
way  before  his  engine,  the  Conqueror;  and  he 
advanced  his  camp  into  the  New  town,  or  Bezetha, 
and  took  up  his  position  at  the  north-west  corner, 
where  the  Assyrians  under  Sennacherib  had  for- 
merly encamped.  From  that  point  he  extended  his 
forces  even  to  the  ridge  of  the  Valley  of  the  Kedron  ; 
the  district  which  has  since  been  the  ground  of  attack 
by  the  Saracen,  the  Crusader,  and  the  Turk.  On 
the  fifth  day  from  the  reduction  of  the  first  wall, 
Titus  assailed  the  second ;  which  formed  the  out- 
ward boundary  of  the  Lower  city,  from  the  Gate 
of  Gennath  to  the  tower  of  the  Antonia ;  and  he 
entered  through  the  breach  with  a  thousand  men, 
the  band  which  he  usually  retained  about  his 
person.  From  this  position  he  was  soon  driven, 
but  he  recovered  his  ground  in  a  few  days,  and, 
after  demolishing  the  second  wall,  began  to  think 
of  attacking   the   inner  one;    the   Jews   still    re- 

^  Be//.  Jud»  V.  ii. — vi. 


I 


o^ 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


23 


taining  the  Upper  city,  the  Temple,  and  the 
Antonia.^ 

Well  aware  of  the  strength  of  their  position,  Titus  pro- 

^  .  .  poses  a 

Titus  sent  Josephus  to  confer  with  his  country-  surrender, 
men,  and  to  propose  terms  of  surrender.  But  his 
proposal  met  with  no  response  but  curses,  jeers, 
and  missiles  from  their  engines,  though  their  intes- 
tine difficulties  were  rapidly  increasing  from  the 
failure  of  their  stores  and  the  prospect  of  a 
famine,  which  was  gaining  upon  them  every  day ; 
a  calamity  which  the  factions  had  hastened  on  by 
their  reckless  destruction  of  each  other's  granaries.^ 

At  length,  with  a  view  to  force  them  to  sur-  Rejected; 

he  tries  to 

render,  Titus  began  to  scourge  and  crucify  those  compel 

thenu 

who,  in  order  to  escape  the  famine,  came  "  over 
to  the  Roman  camp.  Thus  hundreds  perished 
every  day;  Titus  continuing  to  warn  their  leaders 
not  to  compel  him  to  destroy  their  town  and 
Temple  ;  suggestions  which  were  answered  only  by 
declaring, — That  they  preferred  death  to  slavery, 
and  that  their  Temple  would  be  saved  by  Him 
who  dwelt  in  it ;  in  whose  hands  was  the  issue  of 
the  war.^ 

1  Be//.Jud.  V.  vii.  viii.        2  /^/^  ^  j^         3  /^/^,  y  xi. 


24 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


i 


I 


False 
hopes  of 
the  be- 
sieged. 


A  pro- 
])hecy  mis- 
taken. 


So  indeed  they  persisted  in  declaring  to  the 
last ;  sustained  moreover  by  a  firm  belief  in  what 
Josephus  calls  an  ambiguous  prophecy :  That 
about  this  time.  One  from  their  country  would 
obtain  the  dominion  of  the  world.^  This,  says  he, 
they  applied  to  themselves  ;  and  many  of  their  wise 
men  were  deceived  in  their  judgment  of  it;  for, 
in  his  opinion,  it  plainly  indicated  the  supremacy 
of  Vespasian,  who  had  been  proclaimed  emperor  in 
Judaea.^ 

The  prophecy  is  that  in  the  book  of  Micah, 
which  the  Sanhedrin  adduced  when  Herod  de- 
manded of  them  where  the  promised  Christ  would 
be  born.^  It  seems,  in  a  vague  and  mutilated 
form,  to  have  been  widely  known  amongst  the 
heathen,  and  to  have  given  rise  to  those  well- 
known  expectations,  which  Roman  writers,  as  well 
as  Josephus,  referred  to  Vespasian's  elevation  to 
the  throne.  Had  it  not  been  shorn  of  its  com- 
mencement and  its  close, — the  rise  of  this  great 

^    lo      C€     errapav      avTOvs  tt/s  X^pas  It?  arrwr  a/a^ct  tt/s 

fxdXtoTa  TTpos  ToV  TToXe/xoVj  ^v  OLKOViiivr]*;. — BelL  Jud,  VI.  v. 
XprjO-f^^^  d/>t^t/3oXos  djuoiws  iv  ^  Bell.  Jud.  VI.  v.  4. 

TolsUpoLs  €vpr)ix€i/o<s  ypd/jL/jiacriVy  ^  Matt.  ii.  i — 6. 

(•»«;  ivara  lov  Katpnu  €K€ivov  axo 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


25 


Ruler  in  Bethlehem  and  his  goings  forth  from  the 
days  of  old,  those  manifestations  of  his  divine 
character, — the  prophecy  could  never  have  been 
made  to  minister  to  the  pride  and  folly  of  a 
Roman  emperor.^ 

9.  Titus,  on  the  rejection  of  his  proposal  to  sur-  Circum- 

vallationof 

render,  set  his  men  again  to  work,  raising  mounds  ^^^  ^^^y- 

J       I        .  .  .  ,  May, 

and  planting  engines  against  the  Antonia,  and  in  a.d.  70. 
several  other  quarters ;  but  their  work  was  under- 
mined and  burnt  by  the  besieged.-  Accordingly, 
when  all  these  efforts  failed,  he  proposed  to  raise  a 
wall  all  round  the  city,  that  thus,  by  increasing 
the  pressure  of  the  famine,  he  might  effect  an 
easier,  perhaps  an  earlier  conquest.^ 

No  sooner  was  the  project  formed  than  it  was 
done.  The  work  was  distributed  to  the  whole  army 
in  shares;  and,  impelled  by  a  sort  of  preternatural 
enthusiasm,*  the  wall   was  accomplished  in  three 


^  Micah  V.  2.  This  pro- 
phecy, thus  stript  of  its  be- 
ginning and  its  end,  seems 
to  be  the  prediction  referred 
to  by  Tacitus,  Bist.  v.  xiii. 
*Eo  ipso  tempore  fore,  ut 
valesceret  oriens  profectique 


Judaea  rerum  potirentur.' 
2  Bell.  Jud.  V.  vi. 
2  Ibid.  V.  xi.  xii. 

*     Opfirj  ^e  TtS    i/JLTTLTTTCL  Sai- 

fiopLos  Tots  oT/aartwrats. — Bell. 
Jud.  V.  xii. 


26 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Circum- 
vallation  of 
the  city. 


Course  of 
the  wall. 


days.  Legion  vied  with  legion,  and  cohort  with 
cohort;  nay,  every  soldier  in  the  army,  says  Jo- 
sephus,  private,  decurion,  centurion,  tribune,  strove 
to  please  those  immediately  above  him  ;  whilst  the 
rivalry  of  the  tribunes  extended  to  the  general 
officers,  and  Titus  fostered  the  rivalry  of  these, 
going  round  in  person  often  every  day,  and  seeing 
how  the  work  was  going  on.^ 

The  Wall  commenced  at  the  tent  of  Titus.  It 
thence  went  eastward  to  the  lower  part  of  the  New 
town,  and  across  the  Kedron  to  the  Mount  of 
Olives;  thence  towards  the  south  to  the  rock 
called  Peristereon,  which  is  probably  the  site  of  the 
Tombs  of  the  Prophets.  It  thence  went  over  the 
adjoining  hill,  which  overhangs  the  ravine  near 
Siloam ;  thence,  towards  the  west,  to  the  Valley  of 
the  Fountain ;  from  whence  it  ascended  to  the 
Tomb  of  Ananus ;  and  then,  taking  in  the  mount 
where  Pompey  had  encamped,  it  turned  to  the 
north,  as  far  as  the  hamlet  or  House  of  Ere- 
binths;  and  then  enclosing  Herod^s  monument, 
it  rejoined  the  camp  of  Titus,  whence  it  had 
started.^ 


v^ 


\ 


f 


^  Bell.Jud.  V.  xii. 


-  Ibid.  V.  xii.  2. 


i 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


27 


This  record  of  the  Wall  is  one  of  great  interest,  An  im- 
portant 
especially  in  its  connexion  with  our  Lord's  prophecy,  record. 

Though  so  ancient  a  topographical  document,  its 

line  may  be  traced  with  tolerable  certainty  through 

all  the  places  above-mentioned,  except  the  site  of 

Pompey 's  camp,  and  that  of  the  hamlet  on  the 

north    of  it.      This   encampment   was    evidently 

on   the  west   of  the   city ;    where   Pompey    may 

probably  have  halted  for  a  time,  as  he  advanced 

from  Jericho  up   the  Valley  of  Hinnom,  till  he 

finally  took  up  his  position  on  the  north,  at  the  only 

point  from  which  the  city  was  assailable :  or,  as  it 

has  been  recently  suggested,^  after  he  had  taken  up 

that  position,  he  may  have  stationed  a  portion  of 

his  forces  on  the  west,  as  Titus  did  under  similar 

circumstances.     With  however  no  other  account 

of  this  encampment  than  the  passing   notice   in 

this  record  of  the  Wall,  we  cannot  determine  its 

exact  site.     Nor  can  we  settle  that  of  the  hamlet 

beyond  it:  Reland  merely  mentions  its  existence 


1  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  s.  v. 
Jerusalem,  vol.  i.  p.  1003. 
Strabo,  Tacitus,  and  Dion 
Cassius  also  mention  Pom- 


pey's  siege,  but  they  say 
nothing  of  any  encampment 
except  that  on  the  north  of 
the  city. 


28 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


29 


ti 


Construc- 
tion of  the 
wall. 


without  attempting  to  give  its  locality.  It  was 
probably  a  group  of  two  or  three  granaries,  as  the 
name  indeed  implies.^ 

The  Wall  itself  was  probably  similar  to  those 
which  the  Romans  generally  constructed  in  their 
sieges.    The  word  in  Josephus  may  be  any  kind  of 
wall ;  that  in  the  Evangelist,  which  is  rendered  a 
Trench,  signifies  more  than  a  mere  excavation.     It 
signifies,  as  Raphel  has  fully  shown,  a  rampart  of 
wooden  piles  or  stakes,  which  were  fixed  in  and 
wattled  on  a  mound  of  earth,  to  which  the  earth 
from  the  trench  of  course  contributed.^     And  it  is 
remarkable,  that  our  Lord,  in  this  instance,  as  well 
as  in  his  prediction  of  ^  the  abomination  of  desola- 
tion,' cites  the  words  of  an  Old  Testament  pro- 
phecy, which  had  probably  received  a  partial  fulfil- 
ment in  the  invasion  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Assyrians  ; 
leaving,  however,  many  details  to  be  realized  in  the 
still  more  comprehensive  Roman  siege.' ^ 


^    M£)(pt    KiD/JLT]^    TtVOS,     'Ej[)£- 

PivOiDv  otKos  KoActrat.  Domus 
cicerum.  Palcestinaj  vol.  ii. 
p.  766. 

2  See  Raphel's  elaborate 
note  on  x«P"f»  ^"^^  ^^  ^^^ 


Lord's  words,  TrepiftaXovo-Lv 
01  lyQpoi  (Tov  \dpaKd  aou 
Anfiotaf.  171  Luc.  xix.  43. 
Josephus    uses    rctxos,    and 

7r€ptT€i;j(t^€tV. 

^  Isaiah   xxix.   3,  4.     Kai 


" 


ID.  And  now  the  Wall  being  carried  round  the  The 

,  famine 

city,  with  towers  for  garrisons  at  frequent  intervals,  sets  in. 
and  with  guards  in  them  on  duty  by  day  and  by 
night,  so  as  prevent  all  possibility  of  escape,  the 
misery  of  the  captives  soon  reached  its  height. 
Famine  raged  there,  and  death  in  all  its  horrors. 
The  dead,  too  numerous  to  be  buried  within  the 
walls,  were  cast  over  into  the  ravines ;  and  we  are 
told,  that  as  Titus  went  round  the  city,  and  saw 
them  full  of  dead  bodies,  in  a  state  that  excited 
horror  and  disgust,  he  groaned  aloud,  and  called 
God  to  witness  that  it  was  not  his  doing.^ 

Yet  what  was  this  but  the  ^  tyrant's  plea,'  how-  Titus' 

apology 


Ku/cXoxTO)  €7rt  ere,  koI  jSaXw  Trcpl 
o-c  xdpaKaj  /cat  Orjo-o)  Trcpl  ae 
7rvpyov<s'  Koi  TaTreiviDOijaovTaL 
€ts  TTjv  yrjv  01  Aoyot  aov,  /cat 
CIS  ryv  yrjv  ol  Aoyot  orou 
SvcrovTaL*  /cat  lo-ovrat  cos  ot  <f)0)- 
vov)'T€<s  Ik  rrj<s  yrj<s  y  <j>oivr)  crov, 
Kat  irpos  TO  cSa^os  y  <j>(x)V7] 
(TOV  daOevyjaci.  Many  early 
writers  have  noticed  our 
Lord's  adoption  of  this  LXX. 
version  of  the  prophecy; 
which,  compared  with  Jo- 
sephus' account  of  the  cap- 


ture of  Simon  and  his  com- 
panions (Be//.  Jud.  VII.  ii.), 
affords  a  curious  and  interest- 
ing illustration  of  what  Bacon 
calls  '  The  germinant  accom- 
plishment of  prophecies, 
extending  throughout  many 
ages,  though  their  height 
and  fulness  may  refer  to  one.' 
Adv.  of  Learnings  Book  ii. 
Vitringa  takes  the  same  view 
of  it. 

^  Be//.  Jud.  V.  xii. 


30 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Titus' 
apology. 


A  further 
proposal. 


I!      ^ 


ever  it  might  satisfy  himself  or  others  ?  Why,  if 
he  really  pitied  their  sufferings,  did  he  drive  to 
this  extremity  a  brave  people,  whose  only  crime, 
so  far  as  he  was  cognizant,  was  that  of  standing  up 
for  their  national  liberty  ?  This  ^  Darling  and  de- 
light of  all  the  world,'  though  such  was  the  cur- 
rent phrase  of  his  admirers,  was  but  a  strange 
phenomenon,  as  Niebuhr  remarks.^  Whatever 
claim  he  may  have  had  to  the  title,  as  com- 
pared with  persons  of  his  own  age  and  order,  we 
look  in  vain  for  any  just  ground  for  it,  even  in 
the  partial  pages  of  Josephus. 

1 1.  Still  we  are  told  that  he  wished  to  save  the 
city :  and  having  heard  that  the  daily  sacrifice  had 
ceased,  and  that  the  people  were  in  consequence 
greatly  disheartened,  he  proposed  to  John  of 
Gischala,  who  held  the  Antonia,  to  come  down  and 
terminate  the  war,  without  involving  the  Temple 
in  ruin.  'If,*  said  he,  'you  will  but  change  the 
scene  of  conflict,  no  Roman  shall  approach  or 
profane  the  holy  places :  nay,  I  will  save  them 
even  against  your  will/  ^ 

1  Suetonius,     Tit.     Flav.      by  Schmitz,  vol.  ii.  p.  242. 
Vesp.    i. ;    Niebuhr's    Rome^  2  ^^//  jjf^f  yj   jj^ 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


31 


q-. 


This,  like  all  his  previous  proposals,  was  re- 
jected. Upon  which,  as  he  could  not  bring  up  all 
his  forces,  owing  to  the  confined  nature  of  the 
ground,  Titus  selected  the  best  men  of  each  century, 
and  ordered  them,  under  command  of  Cerealius, 
to  attack  the  Jewish  garrison  the  night  following. 
All  the  night  he  watched  the  conflict,  as  did  also 
the  Jewish  chief;  and  the  struggle  continued, 
neither  party  yielding,  till  near  the  middle  of  the 
next  day.^ 

In  the  mean  time  another  division  of  Romans, 
having  broken  through  the  foundations  of  the 
Antonia,  had  forced  a  wide  ascent  as  far  as  the 
Temple;  though  they  suffered  severely  from  the 
resistance  of  the  Jews,  who  fought  with"  all  the 
vigour  and  daring  of  despair.  At  length  the 
Jews  were  driven  into  the  Temple;  from  which 
they  then  cut  off^  all  connexion  with  the  Antonia, 
breaking  and  burning  the  colonnades  that  had 
connected  them ;  severing,  as  it  were,  the  infected 
limbs.^ 


The  Anto- 
nia assault- 
ed. 


Severed 
from  the 
Temple. 

July  17. 

A.D.   70. 


^  Bell.  Jiid.  VI.  ii. 

K.opv<f>ovjJL€vov  rov  TToXi- 
fiov  Kttt  Tw  vaQ  7r/3oo'cp7rovT09, 
KaOaTTEp    fTr)irofi€vov    (rojfjiaTOif 


aTreKoiTTOV  rd  TrpocLXrjfi/jLci^a 
fxiXrj  (i.e.  Ttts  o-Tods),  (f)Odvovr€^ 
Trjv    €1%     TO    7rp6<T(ji     vofirjv. — 

Bell.  Jud.  VI.  ii. 


I 


-'',  f 


32 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


33 


Progress 
of  the 
famine. 


12.  The  sequel  is  but  a  tale  of  misery  and 
horror.  The  fighting  still  continued  in  the  outer 
courts  of  the  Temple,  while  the  people  of  all 
classes  throughout  the  city  were  reduced  to  the 
most  dreadful  and  disgusting  expedients  to  lengthen 
out  a  miserable  life.  They  fiercely  contended  for 
everything  like  food.  They  seized  on  what  even 
brutes  would  refuse;  and  an  event  occurred,  at 
this  crisis,  which  has  been  justly  deemed  the  climax 
of  this  terrific  siege  ;  an  event  which  had  been  pre- 
dicted fifteen  hundred  years  before,  as  one  that 
would  befall  them  in  the  sequel  of  their  history ; 
when,  having  forsaken  the  God  of  their  fathers,  and 
the  ^  fear  of  his  glorious  and  fearful  Name,*  He 
would  bring  against  them  from  afar  ^a  nation 
of  fierce  countenance,'  ^  which  would  besiege  them 


^  Deut.  xxviii.  49  —  59. 
Thus,  according  to  Livy, 
the  Samnites  described  the 
early  Romans  :  '  Oculos  sibi 
Romanorum  ardere  visos, 
aiebant,  vesanosque  vultus  et 
furentia  ora;  inde  plus,  quam 
ex  alia  uUa  re,  terroris  ortum. 
Quern  terrorem  non  pugnae 
solum  eventu,  sed  nocturna 


profectione,  confess!  sunt.' 
Hist.  VII.  xxxiii.  Plutarch 
says  of  Coriolanus  :  'Hi-, 
(Scnrcp  riiiov  rov  (TTpariuyrqv  o 

KoLTiDV,  ov  x^^P^  '^"^  '"'^VyV 
fxorovy  aXKa  Koi  Torio  <l>(t)vrj<: 
KOI    o\l/€L    TTpocroyiTov    <f>oj3ep6i 

7r6o-TaTo<s.  —  Vi^^  ParallelcB. 
vol.  ii.  §.  2.  p.6i.    Ed.Bryan. 


in  all  their  gates.  I  refer  to  the  story  of  the  Jewish  Progress  of 
mother  who,  having  been  stript  of  all  her  property  ^^^^^'"^"^• 
and  food,  was  discovered  by  the  soldiers  to  have 
killed  her  own  infant,  and  to  have  even  devoured 
part  of  it.  The  monstrous  deed  was  told  through- 
out the  city,  and  told  also  in  the  Roman  camp. 
Some  pitied  her;  some  would  not  believe  it;  in 
some  it  only  added  to  their  hatred  of  the  Jews : 
Titus  declaring,  as  he  had  done  before,  that  he 
forsooth  was  innocent  in  this  matter.^ 

Well  might  our  Lord,  on  his  way  to  Calvary,  OurLord's 

„„       .       ,1  .  /»    T  .  prescience 

say  to  th^  weepmg  women  of  Jerusalem,  ^  Weep  and  sym- 

r  t  r  pathy. 

not  tor  me,  but  for  yourselves,  and  for  your 
children/  Well  may  we  suppose  Him,  with  his 
knowledge  of  all  prophecy,  and  his  prescience  of 
this  unparalleled  siege,  to  have  had  this  deed  of 
horror  in  view,  when  He  spoke  of  the  woe  that 


Shakspeare  has  introduced 
this  remark  into  one  of  the 
eulogies  on  Coriolanus  : — 
'  Thou  wast  a  soldier  Even 
to  Cato's  wish ;  not  fierce 
and  terrible  Only  in  strokes  ; 
but,  with  thy  grim  looks  and 
The  thunder-Hke  percussion 
of  thy  sounds.  Thou  mad'st 


thine  enemies  shake.' — Act 
I-  533-  The  early  4to  reads 
CalvuSj  not  Cato;  probably, 
to  avoid  the  anachronism. 
This  has  been  questioned; 
but  there  is  another  like 
instance,  Henry  VI.  Third 
Party  Act  in.  294. 
1  Bell.  Jiid.  VI.  iii. 


UpMlMl., 


-J 


34 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Shall  the 
Temple  be 
spared  ? 


Pi 


SI 


was  hanging  over  the  mother  and  the  suckling  in 

those  days.* 

13.  Titus  was  now  more  than  ever  anxious  to 
bring  this  hateful  war  to  an  end.  To  stand 
thus  baulked,  with  his  baffled  legions,  before  this 
*  hemmed  and  famishing  Jerusalem  *  was  no  glory 
to  himself,  or  to  the  Roman  arms,'  and  after  six 
days'  fruitless  efforts  to  force  his  way  through  the 
Western  wing  of  the  Temple,  he  ordered  the  gates 
to  be  set  on  fire.  The  next  day  he  had  it  extin- 
guished, and  held  a  council  of  war  to  determine 
whether  the  Temple  should  be  saved  or  not.  Many 
in  the  council  were  against  saving  it,  as  they 
thought  it  would  be  always  a  rallying  place  for  the 
Jews,  who  would  never  cease  to  be  disaffected.^ 
Still  Titus  persisted  in  his  wish  to  save  the  Temple, 
as  a  trophy  which    the    Romans   might  well    be 


^  Luke  xxiii.  28,  29. 

2  So  Tacitus  describes  the 
feelings  of  Titus  and  his 
army  at  this  juncture  :  *  Ro- 
mani  ad  oppugnandum  versi, 
neque  enim  dignum  vide- 
batur,  famem  hostium  oppe- 
riri.    Poscebantque  pericula, 


pars  virtute,  multi  ferocia  el 
cupidine  praemiorum.  Ipsi 
Tito  Roma  et  opes  volup- 
tatesque  ante  oculos  ;  ac,  ni 
statim  Hierosolyma  concide- 
rent,  morari  videbantur.' — 
Hisf.  V.  xi. 

3  Be//.  Jud.  VI.  iv. 


»1) 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


^^- 


35 


proud  of,  and  which  seems  to  have  moved  even  his 
'  Stoic  pride/ 

Nor   can   we    be   surprised   at    his   reluctance.  Ti.usVish 
Nothing,    says    Josephus,   was   wanting    in    the  IZl^ '' 
structure  of  the  Temple  likely  to  captivate  the 
mind  and  eye :  and,  though  we  cannot  but  regret 
that  he  has  not  given  us  some  information  as  to  the 
style  of  its  architecture,'  he  has  told  us  much  of 


^  There  are  two  passages 
in  Josephus  which  are  sup- 
posed to  refer  to  this  subject, 
(i)    He  says  that  the  outer 
gate,  which  led  to  the  sanc- 
tuary,   was    of    Corinthian 
brass,  and  much  surpassed 
in  worth  the  gold  and  silver- 
gilt  ones.      M/a  5^  ^  ^^^e€v 
Tov  yeii)  KopLvdLovxaXKov,  ttoXv 
TYJ   TLfiTJ    Ttts    Karapyvpovs   kul 
7r€pL^varov<s      V7rcpdyov(Ta.  — 
^e//.  Jud.    V.    V.    3.       This, 
however,  refers  only  to  the 
material  of  which  this  gate 
was  made  ;  that  costly  com- 
pound of  silver,  gold,   and 
brass,  called  Aes  Corinthia- 
cum ;  or  of  gold  and  brass, 
called     Aurichalcum.      See 


Hoffman,  Lex,   s.  vv.      (2) 
In  his  Antiquities,  Josephus 
says  that  the  heads  of  the 
columns  in  the  south  colon- 
nade  of  the  Temple   were 
finished  off  with  sculptures, 
after  the  Corinthian  manner. 
^lavoKpaviav    avroU   Kara  tov 
Kopu'Oiov  TpoTTOv    iTrcUipyaa-- 
fM€voiv  y\v<f>a:^. — Autiq.  xv.  xi. 
He  says  nothing  of  the  three 
other  sides  of  the  Temple  ; 
and  it  is   doubtful  whether 
Kara     tov     KopLvdtov    rponov 
amounts  to  what  we  should 
call  'of  the  Corinthian  order.' 
In     another    place   he  ap- 
plies the  word  Ko/otv0«os  to 
the    roofing    of    Solomon's 
palace.— y^«//jj7.  viii.  v. 


D  2 


H 


/'. 


li 


r  I 


;(i 


'ii 


i! 


3<5 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Titus' wish  this    magnificent    edifice,    which    we    should   seek 

to  save  the  ^  ^  .       . 

Temple,  in  vain  in  any  other  writer.  He  speaks  of  its  im- 
posing position  on  the  platform  of  the  lofty 
Eastern  hill,  hanging  over  the  valley  of  the  Ke- 
dron;  of  its  double  colonnade  of  thirty  cubits' 
breadth,  and,  including  the  Antonia,  six  furlongs 
long  ;  its  gates  and  doors  of  vast  dimensions,  over- 
laid with  gold  and  silver ;  its  pavements  of  various 
kinds  of  marble ;  its  cedar  roofs  and  ceilings  of 
exquisite  workmanship  ;  its  sacred  inclosures,  court 
within  court,  each  ascending  higher  than  the  outer 
one,  each  increasing  in  local  sanctity,  according  to 
the  theory  of  the  Temple  ritual,  till  they  reached 
the  Holy  Place,  with  its  symbolical  services,'  and  the 
Holy  of  the  Holy  within  its  veils ;  never  intruded 


1  BelL  Jud.  V.  V.  5.  'Ev€- 
(j>aivov,  K.T.X.  But  when  Jo- 
sephus  tells  us  that  the 
Candlestick  symbolized  the 
seven  planets,  and  the  Shew- 
bread  loaves  the  circle  of 
the  zodiac,  we  cannot  but 
recognise  a  vicious  system 
of  Typology;  which,  however 
it  may  have  been  advocated 
by    Philo,   and   by  greater 


names  than  his,  has  been 
very  justly  condemned  by 
Bahr ;  as  placing  the  symbols 
of  the  Mosaic  religion  sub- 
stantially on  a  footing  with 
those  of  Heathenism,  and 
employing  both  alike  in  the 
service  of  a  mere  Nature- 
worship.  See  Fairbairn's 
Typology  of  Scripture^  vol. 
ii.  p.  243. 


y 


\ 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


37 


on  by  footstep,  touch,  or  sight  J     As  to  its  exterior,  Titus' wish 
as  seen  from  Mount  Olivet,  it  must,  from  the  pecu-  Tem^L!''' 
liar  construction  of  its  courts,  have  been  visible 
far  above  its  walls  and  cloisters;  and  its  upper 
front  was  covered  with  plates  of  gold,  which  shone  * 
with  fiery  radiance  in  the  morning  sun.     Milton 
notices  this  view  of  the  Temple,  and  had  evidently 
in  his  mind  the  striking  image  with  which  Josephus 
closes  his  description.^ 

The  holy  City  lifted  high  her  towers. 

And  higher  yet  the  glorious  Temple  rear'd 

Her  pile,  far  off  appearing  like  a  mount 

Of  alabaster,  topp'd  with  golden  spires.^ 


E/cetTo   Sc   ovh\v   oXws    ev 
aJrw,  aftarov  Se  kol  axpavTov 
Kul  uOearop  r^v  irao-iVj  dyCov  Sk 
ayiov    iKaXeiTo.  ~  Be//.  Jud, 
V.  V.  5.    Of  course  this  state- 
ment must  be  understood  in 
a  general  sense,  and  subject 
to  the  well-known  exceptions 
referred   to   in  Hebrews   ix. 
7,  25- 

^  nXa^i  yap  xP^^jov  cTTi/oa- 
pats  KCKaXv/x/xeVos  TrdvToOey, 
VTTO  ras  TTpoiras  dmroAas  Trvpu)- 
^€crTdT)]v  aVcVaAAcj/  airyryi/,  /cat 


Twv  /3ta^o/x,eV(ov  Ihlv  fas  oj/^ct? 
wnrep    r^XiaKOLs    aKTLtnv    d-rri- 

aTp€\f/€.     Tots  y€  /X^J/  €L(Ta<jiLKVOV- 

fxivoL^  ievoL?    ir6pp(i)Q€.v  ofxoLo^ 
dpu  x^ovo<i  7r\r}p€L  KareipaivcTo  : 
Kal   yap    KaOd   firj    Ke-^pva-orro 
XevKoTaros  tjv.     Kara  Kopv<f)rjv 
Be    xp^a-eovs    ojScXovs     dvu-x^ 
Tcdrjyfiivovs,  o>s  fitj  rivi  irpoa- 
KaOc^ofxivoi  fJLoXvvoLTO  Tujv  op- 
vioiv. — Be//.  Jud.  v.  v.  6. 

2  Paradise    Regained,    iv. 
545--548. 


■vm 


¥ 


38 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


\ 


V  i 


% 


II 


Left 
desolate. 


But  all  in  vain  was  the  desire  to  save  it.  The 
priests  had  heard,  a  few  weeks  before,  on  entering 
the  Temple  on  the  night  of  the  Pentecost,  the  voice, 
as  of  a  multitude,—^  We  are  departing  hence/ ' 
Nay,  our  Lord,  as  we  have  seen,  had  declared  to 
the  people,  when  about  to  take  his  final  leave  of 
the  Temple,— That  their  House  would  be  left  unto 
them  desolate.  And  desolate  it  was  thenceforward, 
in  the  truest  and  most  pathetic  sense  of  his  words. 
For,  though  the  Jews  retained  it  for  many  years, 
and  continued  also  to  enrich  and  adorn  it,  up  to  the 
very  eve  of  its  destruction,  its  doom  was  sealed,  its 
desolation  had  begun  with   the  departure  of  that 


^   Kara    Se    rriv     koprrjv,    rj 

H€PTr}K0(7T7J     KaXctTttt,      VVKTiOp 

ol  UpeL<s  TrapeXOovTcs  €ts  to 
eySov  Lcpov,  uKnrep  avrois  Wo<s 
Tjv  irpos  ras  Acirorpyms,  tt/uw- 
Tov  p\v  KLvrjo-cu)^  avTiXafieaOaL 
e<t}(way  kol  ktvttov,  fMerd  Sk 
ravra  cjid)  vrjs  dOpoaSy  Mcra- 
fiaivofiey  cVrcv^cv. — Be//.  Jud. 
VI.  V.  3.  I  have  adopted 
Cardwell's  reading,  which 
was  probably  that  of  Taci- 
tus :  ^Expassae  repente  de- 
lubri    fores    et    audita    ma- 


jor humana  vox,  Excedere 
Deos\  simul  ingens  motus 
excedentium/— i7/>/.  v.  xiii. 
Different  opinions  will,  of 
course,  be  formed  of  such 
an  incident  as  this  :  when, 
however,  I  consider  what 
this  Temple  was— its  ante- 
cedents historical,  propheti- 
cal, typical— I  can  hardly, 
with  Lardner,  regard  this 
story,  as  nothing  more  than 
an  imitation  of  a  heathen 
legend. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


59 


Divine  Presence,  which  had  shed  upon  it  a  greater  Left 
glory  than   the  glory  of  the  former   Temple   of  ^^""'"'"' 
Solomon,  even  in  its  brightest  day.     And  now  too 
was  the  anniversary  of  that  day  of  mourning,  so 
darkly  marked  for  ages  in  the  Hebrew  calendar, 
on  which  that  former  Temple  had  been  burnt.^ 

14.  Titus  had  withdrawn  into  the  Antonia,  deter-  The  last 
mined  the  next  morning,  at  break  of  day,  to  assault  T^'''* 

,  Aug.  5, 

the  Temple  with  his  whole  force.    The  Jews,  after  ''■^-  7°- 
a   short   breathing-time,  once  more  attacked    the 
besiegers ;  but  the  Romans  turned  them,  and  drove 
them  in ;  and,  after  a  conflict  with  the  Temple- 
guards,  penetrated  even  into  the  sanctuary :  when  a 
soldier  snatched  a  brand  from  the  blazing  timber, 
and,  lifted  up  by  one  of  his  companions,  threw  it 
into  one  of  the  surrounding  apartments;   which 
immediately  took  fire.     The  Jews,  on  seeing  the 
flames  ascending,    rushed   to   the   rescue  with   a 
piteous  outcry.     Titus,  as  soon  as  he  knew  what 
had  happened,  ran  to  the  spot  to  arrest  the  fire, 
with  his  officers   and   soldiers,  all   amazed ;   and 
called  upon  the  men  to  extinguish  the  flames.    But 
neither  threats  nor  persuasion  could  avail.     They 

1  Bell.  Jud.  VI.  V.  VI.  iv. 


:  li 


r"!"*" 


'It 


40 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


'I 


The 

Temple 

burnt. 

Aug.  5, 

A.D.    70. 


pretended  not  to  hear  his  orders,  and  called  upon 
each  other  to  extend  the  conflagration.     Many,  in 
their  impetuous  rush  into  the  Temple,  were  crushed 
to  death  by  their  own  comrades ;  many  perished 
with  their  opponents  in  the  ruins.     The  Jews,  within 
the  Temple,  were  most  of  them  unarmed,  and  were 
instantly    butchered  wherever   they  were   caught. 
The  steps  of  the  altar  flowed  with  blood,  and  the 
dead  were  crowded  round  it  in  heaps.     The  fire, 
in  the  mean  time,  was  spreading  everywhere ;  but 
as  it  had  not  reached  the  Holy  Place  as  yet,  Titus, 
with  the  help  of  the  captain  of  his   body-guard, 
made  a  last  and  vigorous  efibrt  to  save  it.     But 
nothing  could  stop  the  furious  onset  of  the  soldiers, 
sharpened,  as  it  was,  by  their  hatred  of  the  Jews, 
and  by  the  hopes  of  plunder,  which  they  expected 
would    be   gratified    by   the   far-famed    treasures 
of  the  inner  Temple ;    which  all  they  saw  around 
them  tended  to  confirm.     At  length,  when  after 
the  slaughter  of  all  whom  the  soldiers  encountered 
on  the  Temple  platform,  without  respect  of  person, 
age,  or  office,  all  the  Jews  that  could  escape  having 
fled  into  the  city,  and  while  the  sanctuary  and  all 
around  them  was  in  flames,  the  Romans  brought   . 


^ 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


41 


their  eagles  within  the  walls ;  and  having  set  them  The 
up   at   the  Eastern   gate,  they   there   ofl^ered  up  bumf' 
to  them  their  sacrifices,  and  there  saluted  Titus     '^"^-  ^' 
as   Imperator,    with   acclamations   of  great  joy.^    ^''''  ^''* 
Thus  the  ^  abomination  of  desolation,'  the  symbol 
of  the  highest  power  in  Heathendom,  was  set  up 
in  God's  most  Holy  Place ;  in  what  was  deemed 
the  Holiest  in  Israel. 

We  need  not  pursue  this  saddest  of  all  histories  The  city 
through  the  burning  of  the  city  and  the  slaughter  'a"'  , 
of  its  inhabitants,  whilst  the  shouts  and  shrieks  of      "''  '^' 
the  slayers  and  of  the  slain  were  echoed  from  the 
mountains  round  Jerusalem,  till  their  last  refuge, 
the  Upper  town,  was  taken,  and  the  Romans  be- 
came masters  of  the  whole  city.^ 

15-  So  astonished  was  Titus,  on  entering  within  tuus> 
Its  walls,  at  the  height,  and  breadth,  and  solidity  of  '"'"""'■ 
its  defences,  that  it  drew  from  him  a  striking  tes- 
timony to  our  Lord's  prediction  of  the  days  of 
vengeance,  which  He  had  declared  would  overtake 
that  guilty  generation.     '  God,'  said  Titus,  '  must 
certainly  have  fought  upon  our  side :  it  was  God 
that  cast  down  the  Jews  from  these  bulwarks ;  for, 
'  MM/uJ.  VI.  iv._v.  2  ji,-j_  ,,j  ^_^... 


42 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


J 


The  city 
laid  waste. 


As  our 
Lord  had 
foretold. 


as  for  human  hands  and  engines,  what  could  they 
avail  against  these  towers  ?*^ 

And  now,  when  according  to  the  words  of  the 
historian,  there  were  none  to  be  seen  to  plunder  or 
to  slay,  Titus  ordered  the  city  and  the  Temple  to 
be  razed   to  their  foundations ;    leaving  only  the 
three  Royal  Towers,  and  the  Wall  with  its  barracks, 
which  enclosed  the  town  on  the  West :  the  latter, 
for  the  reception  of  the  garrison  that  was  to  be  left 
there ;  the  Towers,  to  indicate  to  future  times,  what 
a  strong  and  splendid  city  Roman  valour  had  sub- 
dued.    '  All  the  rest  of  the  wall,  that  encompassed 
the    city,  they  so  reduced,'  says  Josephus,  ^  and 
levelled  with  the  ground,  that  there  was  nothing 
to  lead  those  that  visited  the  spot  to  believe  that  it 
had  ever  been  inhabited.'^ 

So  precise  was  the  fulfilment  of  those  words, 
'  The  days  shall  come  upon  thee,  that  thine  ene- 
mies shall  cast  a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass 


^  ^vv  0c<3  y  €7ro\efjiriffaiJL€Vj 
Kai  ©€os  ^v  6  To>v8c  T(3y  cpv- 
fjLOLTwv  'lovSatbvs  KaOeXujv,  cTrct 
;(€t/3£S  T€  ai'dpiDTTiDy  7)  firj^^avol 
tL  Trpos  TovTOvs  Tovs  TTvpryov^ 
^vvavrai ; — BelLJicd.  vi.  ix.  i. 


"  Toi/  8  aXkov  aTravra.  ttJs 
TToXcws  ireptpoXov  ovto)s  e^wfjid- 
Xicrav  OL  KaTao-KOLTTTOvrcs,  ojs 
fxrjSk  ttcottot'  otKrjOrjpaL  iriarTLV 
av  €TL  7rapa(TX€LV  tols  TTpoo-cA.- 
Oova-L — Bell.Jud,  vii.  i.  i. 


i 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  43 

thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall  lay  thee  even  with 
the  ground,  and  thy  children  within  thee;  and 
they  shall  not  leave  in  thee  one  stone  upon  another; 
because  thou  knewest  not  the  time  of  thy  visita- 
tion.' > 

Thus  too  was  fulfilled  another  word  of  judgment  The  city 
in  one  of  our  Lord's  last  parables,  which  obviously  haTb^e" 
belongs  to  this  period,  that  of  the  Marriage  of  the  '"""''' 
King's  Son :  who,  having  provided  his  royal  ban- 
quet, sent  forth  his  servants  to  invite  the  guests. 
The  thoughtless  multitude  made  light  of  it ;  their 
proud    and   angry  rulers   killed    the   messengers; 
whereupon  the  King  sent  forth  his  armies  and  de- 
stroyed those  murderers,  and  burnt  up  their  city. 
Our  Lord  says  their  city  :  for  as  the  Temple  had 
ceased  to  be  God's  House,  and  was  now  reduced 
to    utter    desolation,   so   Jerusalem    had    lost   its 
honoured  name  and  guardian,  and  was  no  longer 
'  the  City  of  the  Great  King,'  ^ 

Nor  is  it  only  in  this  work  of  desolation,  that  we  Prophecy 
see  this  fulfilment  of  our  Lord's  words,  notwith-  V^^ 
standing  the  counter-efforts  of  Titus  and  of  the  Jews;  ^^^^' 
we  see  it  also  in  '  the  great  Tribulation,'  which  our 
'  ^"^'  '''''•  43,  44.         ^  Matt.  V.  35  ;  xxii.  1-7. 


44 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


Confirmed 
by  Jose- 
phus. 


Lord  declared  would  fall  upon  that  generation; 
such  as  had  not  been  since  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  nor  ever  will  again  be  in  the  tide  of  time.^ 

Of  this  we  have  had  sad  proof  enough  in  the 
general  outlines   which    have    been    given  of  the 
siege.     Josephus  says,  in  nearly  our  Lord's  own 
words, — That  the  troubles  of  all  people,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  appeared  to  him  to  sink 
in  comparison  with  those  of  the  Jews  in  this  war.^ 
And  in  another  place  he  remarks, — That,  as  no 
other  city  ever  suffered  such  miseries  as  Jerusalem, 
so  no  generation  had  ever  existed  more  fruitful  in 
wickedness  than  that.'     Yet  he  himself  failed,  with 
his  unhappy  countrymen,   to   recognise  the  head 
and  front  of  their  offence,  in  that  they  desired  a 
murderer  to  be  granted  unto  them,  and  killed  the 
Prince  of  Life.* 

1 6.  The  people  that  survived  the  fall  of  the  city 
thTsiak.     were  variously  disposed  of  at  the  will  of  their  con- 


45 


The  cap- 
tives and 


li 


^  Matt.  xxiv.  21,  2  2. 

layovv  TravT(ji)v  an  auovos 
aTvxyjfJi-CLTa  irpos  ra  'lovdaiiDV 
yTTaxrdai  jjlol  Sok€l  Kara   crvy- 

KpKTLv.  —  Bell,  Jud,    Frocem. 
§  4- 


TToXiv  aXXrjv  ToiavTaTriirovOivai, 
fi/jTC    y€vedv    e|  alioyos    yeyo- 
vevai    KttKtas    yovifjunripav.  — 
Bell.  Jiid.  V.  X.  5. 
*  Aets  iii.  14,  15. 


queror.  Those  that  resisted  were  put  at  once  to  The  cap- 
the  sword ;  the  factious  brigands  were  also  exe-  tTi:l 
cuted ;  the  tall  and  handsome  youths  were  reserved 
for  the  triumph ;  others  were  condemned  to  servile 
works  in  Egypt ;  many  were  sold,  and  many  were 
distributed  for  gladiatorial  victims  throughout  the 
provinces.' 

According  to  the  generally  received  estimate. 
Eleven  hundred  thousand  perished  during  the  siege; 
Ninety-seven  thousand  were  made  prisoners,  exclu' 
sive  of  nearly  Four  hundred  thousand,  who  perished 
in  the  war,  in  various  places,  from  the  time  when 
our  Lord  delivered  his  prophecy,  till  the  fifth  year 
after  the  capture  of  the  city." 

17.    And  yet,  as  a  Roman   historian  remarks,  The  con- 
though  the  conquest  of  the  Jews  was  thus  important  Z:T''^ 
and  complete,  and  though  the  conquerors  had  each  ^'""""' 
the  rank  of  Imperator,  neither  of  them  took  the 
title  of  Judaicus,'  as,  from  the  greatness  of  their 


^  Bell.  Jud.  VI.  ix. 

2  Ussher,  Atinales  Nov. 
Test.  Works,  vol.  xi.  pp.  112, 
113- 

Kat  cV  aiJrots  (says  Dion 
Cassius,  i.e.  in  consequence 


of  these  successes,  the  cap- 
ture of  the  city  and  the  im- 
position of  tribute),  rh  ^x\v 
Tov  avTOKparopog  ot^ofia  dfi<t>6- 
TepoL  €\al3oy,  to  Sk  8r)  tov 
'lovSaiKov     ot'S'     ?r€/3os     ta^i 


h 


fSi&jMtt. 


46 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


The  con-     Victories,  and  from  the  practice  of  eminent  men 

quest  great, 

but  no        who   had   preceded  them,  they   might  have  been 

Agnomen.  jo 

expected  to  do.  Was  it  that  Vespasian  would  not 
assume  a  title  which  he  may  have  felt  belonged 
especially  to  his  son  ?  Or  was  it  that  Titus  declined 
a  distinction  that  might  seem  to  dim  the  splendour 
of  his  father's  fame  ?  Dion  Cassius,  who  has  called 
attention  to  the  circumstance,  has  given  us  no  solu- 
tion of  it.  Was  it,  as  his  learned  editor  suggests,^ 
on  the  ground  of  a  sarcastic  word  of  Cicero's, 
touching  Pompey's  capture  of  Jerusalem,  that  the 
Romans  did  not  care  to  take  a  title  from  a  people 


*»    t 


KaLTOL  ra  t€  aXXa  aurot?,  ocra 

€7rJ     T7)\LKaVTr]     VtKT)      CtKOS     TJV, 

KOL  d\f/LSe<;  Tpo7raLo<l>6poL  €\f/r}- 
<t>L(TOrj(Tav.^ — Hisf.  Rom.  vol. 
ii.  Lxvi.  7. 

^  Reimar  refers  to  an  ex- 
pression in  Cicero's  Epist. 
ad  Atticum,  11.  ix.  *  Ut  sciat 
hie  noster  Hierosolymarius, 
traductor  ad  plebem,  quam 
bonam  meis  putissimis  ora- 
tionibus  gratiam  retulerit  : 
quarum  exspecta  divinam 
7raAtva)S/av. '  Cicero  had 
lauded  Pompey  in  the  se- 
nate for  not  plundering  the 


sacred  treasury  when  the 
Jews  abandoned  the  Temple 
to  his  soldiers,  not  choosing 
to  fight  on  the  Sabbath  day. 
But  when  Cicero  wrote  this 
letter  to  Atticus,  he  was 
smarting  under  Pompey's 
treacherous  conduct,  in  ad- 
vancing the  schemes  of  his 
enemy  Clodius,  and  he 
threatens  'this  Jerusalemite 
of  ours,'  as  he  calls  him, 
with  a  recantation  of  those 
commendations  which  had 
met  with  so  ungrateful  a 
return. 


t 


If 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


47 


e  con- 


whom  they  held  in  such  contempt  as  the  Jews  ?  xh 
True  it  is,  the  Romans  did  despise  them  for  what  bufn^^^ ' 

,  ,  J     I     .  .    .  Agnomen. 

they  deemed  their  unsocial  system ;  and  Pompey's 
capture  of  the  city  may  have  been  an  easy  feat. 
But  Vespasian  and  Titus  had  no  easy  work  in  their 
subjugation  of  Judaea  and  its  metropolis.     Their 
five  years'  war,  and  their  five  months'  siege,  toge- 
ther  with  their  arduous  conquest  of  Galilee,  must 
have  taught  them  to  hold  the  Jewish  nation  in  any 
other  light  than  that  of  contempt :  and  the  great 
preparations  which  they  made  for   their  triumph 
indicated    anything    but  such  a  feeling.     Was  it 
then  that  Titus  shrank  from  the  title,  from  feeling, 
as  we  have  seen,  on  entering  the  city,  that  God 
had  broken  down  its  walls  and  bulwarks,  and  had 
delivered  it  as  a  prey  into   his  hands  ?     We  can 
hardly  be  justified  in  this  inference,  when  viewed 
in  connexion  with  his  subsequent  career.    Yet  so  it 
was,  that  neither  of  the  generals  took  any  title  from 
the  scene  of  his  victories,  nor  called  himself  the 
conqueror   of  Jerusalem.     Jerusalem    fell  indeed 
by  the  Hand  that  had  exalted  her,  and  had  made 
her  once  '  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth.'     She  fell,  a 
terrible  and  memorable  example  of  perverted  pri- 


^ 


I 


f 


48 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


f|l 


The  con-     vileges  and  of  a  broken  covenant.     She  fell  before 

quest  great,  t        j     •       i_  ui 

but  no        the  armies  of  Rome  ;  but  our  Lord,  m  the  parable 

Agnomen. 

just  cited,  calls  them  emphatically  his  Father's 
armies,  sent  forth  to  vindicate  his  injured  Son.  Her 
rulers  rejected  their  King,  their  Christ ;  lest,  as  they 
avowed,  the  Romans  should  come  and  take  away 
their  place  and  nation;^  and  this  very  rejection 
brought  upon  them  those  Romans,  who  took  away 
their  nation  and  their  place. 

18.  Shortly  after  the  fall  of  the  city  Titus  went 
to  Caesarea  and  Berytus,  where  he  celebrated  his 
father's  and  his  brother's  birthdays  with  great 
magnificence  and  with  barbarous  shows  ;  in  which 
several  thousand  Jewish  captives  were  put  to  death 
in  wanton  sport ;  '  butchered  to  make  a  Roman 
holiday.'  Thence,  after  visiting  Antioch  and 
Zeugma,  Titus  proceeded  to  Alexandria,  having 
taken,  on  his  way,  a  pitying  glance  at  the  striking 
contrast,  then  presented,  to  all  its  former  greatness 
and  splendour,  in  the  wretched  and  solitary  ruins 
of  Jerusalem.^     There  he  left  the  tenth  legion  in 


Prisoners 
and  spoils 
sent  to 
Rome. 


m 


^  John  xi.  48. 

2   Kat  Kara  ttJv  iropeiav  rots 

*l€pO(To\vilOL<S      TTpOO-cX^WV,      Kttt 


rrjv  XvTTpap  c/077/xtav  pXciroiJLcirrjv 
dt'TiOiis  rfj  7roT€  rrjs  ttoXco)? 
XafXTrpoTrjTL,  Kal  ro  ii€ycOo<s  twv 


. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


49 


charge  of  the  relics  of  the  people  and  of  the  city  :  Prisoners 

o  -^       ■»•  '        and   spoils 

the   twelfth  legion^  he  banished  to   Armenia,   in  ^^^^^^^ 


Rome. 


remembrance  of  their  ignominious  retreat  and  the 
loss  of  their  eagle  at  Bethhoron.  From  Egypt  he 
sent  Simon  Bargioras,  and  John  of  Gischala,  with 
seven  hundred  Jews,  selected  for  their  stature  and 
personal  appearance,  together  with  an  enormous 
amount  of  spoils,  to  grace  his  approaching  triumph 
at  Rome.^ 

Some  of  these  spoils,  Josephus  tells  us,  were 
brought  to  Titus  by  one  of  the  priests,  under  a. 
solemn  promise  of  protection,  before  the  Upper 
city  had  fallen  ;  others  were  surrendered  by  the 
Treasurer  of  the  Temple;  and  he  mentions  in 
particular,  golden  candlesticks  and  tables,  bowls 
and  cups,  and  other  articles  which  had  been  used 
in  the  sacred  service.^  In  a  subsequent  account 
of  what  he  saw  in  the  triumph,  though  he  does 
not  profess  to  describe  all  the  spoils,  he  says  that 
those  that  were  taken  from  the  Temple  made  the 


ippYjyfiei/wv  KaTao-Kcvacr/utaTWP, 
Koi  TO  TTttXat  KaWos  ci?  pofqfx-qv 
/3aX\o//,€vos,  wKTetjOc  t^s  tto- 
Xcws  Tov  oXeOpov. — BelLJnd. 

VII.  V. 


^  Ibid.  VII.  i.  3.  After- 
wards the  noted  Legio  Ful- 
minatrix. 

2  Ibid.  VII.  V.  2,  3. 

^  Ibid.  VI.  viii.  3. 


S^" 


Prisoners 
and  spoils 
sent  to 
Rome. 


The 

Triumph, 

A.D.  71, 


^M 


50 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


greatest  figure  on  that  occasion  ;  ^  those  in  fact 
which  appeared  most  worthy  of  being  recorded 
amongst  the  sculptures  on  the  Arch ;  which  are 
indeed  truthful  records  of  the  triumph,  though 
there  is  some  artistic  fiction  mixed  up  with  them. 

19.  The  Arch  then  may  be  regarded  as  an 
exponent  of  the  Triumph ;  which  took  place  on 
the  return  of  Titus  to  Italy,  probably  in  the  year 
following  the  fall  of  Jerusalem ;  but  when  exactly 
we  cannot  say,  as  the  Triumphal  Annals  terminate 
many  years  earlier.^ 

In  consequence  of  the  difi^erent  victories  of  the 
two  conquerors  the  Senate  decreed  a  separate 
triumph  to  each.  They  however  determined  that 
their  conquests  should  be  celebrated  by  only  one 
common  triumph.^     The  Senate  voted  also  ^  two 


^   Aa<^vpa    Se   to.  fiev  aXXa 

lepoffoXviioL^i  tepw. — Bell.Jiid. 
VII.  V.  5. 

Toov,  d  TtTos  €ts  T(iv  'iroAtav 
eTraj/cX^tov,  rh.  Ittivikkx  ai/ros 
T€  Kai  o  Trarrjp  i(f>  apfjiaTO<s 
€7r€fJLif/av'  dwiTTEinre  8c  (T(f)L(TLV 


avTo.  Kol  6  Aoju.€Ttavos  v7raT€V(i)v 
€7rt  KiXrjTo^.  Zonaras,  An- 
na/es,  xi.  xviii.  According 
to  the  Fasfi  Domitian  was 
consul,  A.D.  71  j  and  the 
triumph  probably  took  place 
in  the  spring  or  summer  of 
that  year.  He  was  not  consul 
again  till  a.d.  73. 
'  Bell.  Jud,  VII.  V.  3. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


51 


trophied  arches ; '  so  at  least  we  are  told  by  Dion       The 

Triumph. 

Cassius :  ^  but  there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  ^•^-  7i. 
more  than  one  erected,  and  that  not  till  after  the 
death  of  Vespasian.  But  their  Triumph  appears 
to  have  been  conducted  on  a  scale  of  more  than 
ordinary  magnificence.  Orosius  says  it  was  the 
three  hundred  and  twentieth  of  those  pageants,  for 
which  the  Romans  were  so  much  celebrated ;  and 
that  it  was  distinguished  by  the  splendour  of  its 
spectacle  far  beyond  all  that  had  preceded  it.-  Jose* 
phus,  who  was  present,  is  exuberant  in  its  praise ; 
and  seems  to  have  been  so  lost  in  admiration  of 
its  novelties,  as  to  have  forgotten,  not  only  his 
country's  degradation,  but  the  wrongs  and  sorrows 
also  of  his  captive  countrymen ;  who  so  largely 
contributed  to  swell  its  pomp  and  pride. 

All  the  troops,  which  were  then  in  Rome,  as- 
sembled in  the  morning  of  the  day  appointed,  near 
the  temple  of  Isis,  in  the  Campus  Martius,  where 
they  were  met  by  Vespasian  and  Titus,  crowned 
with  laurel  and  in  ancestral  purple.^     Thence  they 

^  D.  Cassius,  Hist.  LXVI.  7.       rp/oi^s      a/X7r€XO/xevot.  —  Bell. 
2  Orosius,  Hist.  vii.  ix.  Jud.  vii.  v.  4.     Not  paternal 

^  IIop<^v/)as  8c  ia-Orjra^  -a-      or  ancestral,  as  belonging  to 

E  2 


'1 


/ 


hi. 


^. 


V 

^ 


52 


THE  ARCH   OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS   OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


53 


»  i 


The 

Triumph. 

A.D.  71. 


'! 


M 


proceeded  to  the  Octavian  Walks,  or  Porticus, 
where  the  Senate,  magistrates,  and  many  of  the 
knights  were  waiting  to  receive  them.^  There,  in 
front  of  the  colonnades,  and  seated  in  their  ivory 
chairs  of  state,  they  received  and  returned  the  con- 
gratulations of  the  people ;  and  distributed  to  the 
soldiers,  who  had  been  with  them  in  the  war,  the 
customary  crowns  and  branches  of  laurel,  together 
with  those  headless  spears  or  staves,^  which  were 
special  marks  of  military  distinction,  and  which 
appear,  as  we  shall  see,  in  the  hands  of  the  soldiers, 
who  are  carrying  the  spoils  of  the  Temple.  Having 
offered  their  usual  form  of  prayer,  —  That  the 
gods,  by  whom  Rome  had  been  founded  and  ad- 
vanced, would  still  continue  their  favour  and  pro- 


Vespasian's  family;  for  an- 
cestry he  had  none,  and 
would  have  been  the  last  to 
claim  it;  but,  according  to 
the  old  established  rites, 
which,  on  these  occasions, 
required  the  Imperator  to  be 
in  purple,  and  all  the  rest  in 
white. 

^  Bell,  Jud.  VII.  V.  4. 

^  Aopara   acrtSrjpa,    as    Zo- 


naras  calls  them,  in  his  ac- 
count of  the  triumph  of 
Camillus,  A/males  vii.  xxi. 
The  Romans  called  them 
Hastae  purae,  and  they  seem 
to  have  been  usual  append- 
ages of  a  triumph.  *  Sed  tua 
sic,  domitis  Parthae  telluris 
alumnis,  Pura  triumphantes 
hasta  sequatur  equos.' — Pro- 
pertius,  iv,  iii.  67. 


tection, they  went  with  their  attendants  to  the 

Triumphal  Gate,  through  which  they  had  to  pass 
into  the  city.  There,  having  put  on  their  appro- 
priate robes,^  and  having  offered  frankincense  to 
the  gods  whose  statues  stood  there,  they  mounted 
their  chariots,  and  ordered  the  procession  to  move 
on;  driving  through  the  tiers  of  crowded  seats 
which  flanked  their  line  of  progress  to  the  Capitol.^ 


1  Josephus  is  quite  correct 
in  his  reference  to  these  OpL- 
dfi/SiKai  io-O^raiy  as  distinct 
from  and  in  addition  to  the 
purple  dress  above  men- 
tioned. They  consisted  of 
the  Tunica  Jovis  ;  so  called 
from  being  kept  in  the  Capi- 
toline  temple;  whence  they 
were  borrowed  on  these 
occasions.  Bulenger,  Be 
Irmm-^Ais,  xm.  in  Gronov. 
Tkes.  vol.  XI. 

2  "Ettc/xttov  tov  dpiafjijoov  8ta 
Ttiiv  OedrpWiV  Stc^cXawovTCS, 
OTTCDS  €1.7]  Tois  7r\i^de(Ttv  t]  6ia 
pdwv. — Bell.  Jud.  VII.  V.  Do- 
nati  remarks  on  this  passage  : 
'  Quid  autem  est  transire 
inter  spectacula,  nisi  per  loca 


spectaculorum  et  circos,  quo- 
rum gradus  insederat  popu- 
lus,  ut  spectaret  facilius  at- 
que  commodius  %  Vespasi- 
anus  autem  discedens  ab 
Octavia  porticu  per  Circum 
primo  Flaminium,  deinde  Cir- 
cum Maximum  transiturus 
erat  .  .  .  Ambigi  posset,  an 
etiam  per  theatra  primum 
Pompeii,  tum  Balbi,  deinde 
Marcelli,  et  amphitheatrum 
StatiUi  in  Campo,  et  Flavium 
prope  Sacram  viam,  post- 
quam  extructa  sunt,  pompa 
Triumphalis  transiret.  Sed 
fortasse  horum  aditus  non 
ceperunt  machinas,  pegmata, 
carros,  et  immania  ilia  fer- 
cula,  quibus  manubiae,  ima- 


The 

Triumph. 

A.D.  71. 


i  . 


K 


'  \  * 


li 


u 


The 

Triumph. 

A.D.  71. 


54 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


The  route  of  the  procession  is  not  given  In 
Josephus,  nor  can  we  indeed  determine  with  cer- 
tainty the  site  of  the  Gate  ^  from  which  it  started  ; 
b.ut  he  has  mentioned  the  chief  component  parts  of 
the  pomp ;  and  we  can  readily  supply  such  as  are 
wanting. 

The  Senate  and  other  chief  persons  took  the 
lead.  They  were  followed  by  the  greater  portion 
of  the  spoils,  with  persons  carrying  title-boards 
or  placards;  from  which  the  spectators  might  ascer- 
tain the  history  of  all  the  objects  that  passed  before 
them.^     Josephus  does  not  enter  much  into  these 


gines,  atque  hostium  spolia 
vehebantur.  Dixerim  prse- 
terea,  theatra,  propter  ad- 
junctum  scenae  piilpitum,  et 
clausiim  fabrica3  semicircu- 
lum,  pompoe  transitum  non 
prgebuisse.  De  amphithe- 
atris  dubitaverim.' — De  Urbe 
Roma,  I.  xxii.  Groevius,Tom. 
III.  May  not  Josephus  have 
meant  by  twv  OeuTpiDv  nothing 
more  than  '  seeing  places ;' 
that  is  the  seats  erected  along 
the  line  which  the  procession 
had  to  traverse  through  the 


city?     Ottods  €17}  TOLS  TtX-qOea-Lv    ff 
j[Oia  pdoiv, — 'that  the  multi- 
tudes might  have   a   better 
sight  of  it.' 

^  Donati  places  this  Gate 
in  the  city  wall,  on  the  South 
of  the  Campus  Martins  ;  but 
he  candidly  says,  '  Equidem 
potius  ubi  non  fuerit,  quam 
ubi  ponenda  sit,  possum  os- 
tendere.' — Z>e  Urbe  Roma, 
I.  xxii. 

"  Ovid,  from  remembrance 
of  similar  pageants  (for  he 
was  at  Pontus  when  he  wrote 


I 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


55 


details ;  he  says  it  was  impossible  to  recount  them 
all ;  but  that  such  was  the  number  and  such  the 
magnificence  of  the  spoils,  of  things  most  rich  and 
rare  in  nature  and  in  art/  that  it  seemed  as  if  the 
products  of  different  nations  had  been  brought  there 
together,  on  that  day,  and  had  passed  before  him 
like  a  flowing  river.^  There  was  silver,  gold,  and 
ivory  in  all  manner  of  forms ;  gems,  in  crowns  and 
in  other  fashions;  tapestries  of  the  rarest  Baby- 
lonian embroidery.  There  were  also  in  the  pomp, 
in  appropriate  trappings,  foreign  animals  of  various 
kinds;  and  other  productions  of  the  conquered 
country  which  would  be  likely  to  interest  the  citizens 
of  Rome.^     But  the  objects,  which,  according  to 


the  verses),  speaks  of  these 
Tituli  or  placards,  in  a 
triumph  of  Tiberius.  '  Ergo 
omnis  poterit  populus  spec- 
tare  triumphos.  Cum  que  du- 
cum  titulis  oppida  capta 
leget :  Vinclaque  captiva  re- 
ges  cervice  gerentes.  Ante 
coronatos  ire  videbit  equos.' 
— Trist.  IV.  ii.  19 — 22. 

^  ^Afxrj^avov  Se  Kara  rrjp 
d^t'ai/  tiTTc'iV  Twv  OtafxdriJiV  cK€t- 
vitiv  TO  7rXijOo<iy  KOL  TJjv  jieyoXo- 


TTpeTTSiaV    cV    OLTTaO-LV,   Ols    aV    TL^ 

€7riV07]o-eL€v,  rf  t€)(^(ov  €/)yot9, 
rj  ttXovtov  fJLepeo-LV,  ^  <l>v(T€w<i 
(TTravioTT^cn. — J3e//.   Jud.    VII. 

2  Ibid.  VII.  V. 

3  According  to  a  curious 
list,  which  Hoffman  has  given 
of  these  triumphal  novelties 
(s.  V.  Triumphus),  it  appears 
that  the  Balsam-tree  of  Jeri- 
cho was  the  most  remark- 
able  exotic    in   Vespasian's 


The 

Triumph. 

A.D.  71. 


\ 


56 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


» 


The 
Triunph. 
A.u.  71. 


Josephus,  excited  the  greatest  admiration  in  the 
whole  procession,  were  the  large  and  lofty  plat- 
forms, on  which  were  exhibited  various  sections  of 
the  late  campaign ;  consisting  of  models  of  cities, 
temples,  fortresses,  assaulted,  captured,  in  ruins  or 
in  flames;  with  dramatic  representations  of  the 
hostile  armies  in  all  the  varying  forms  and  cir- 
cumstance of  war.^  Then  there  followed  many 
captured  ships,  that  had  probably  been  taken  at 
Tarichasa,  and  after  the  conflicts  and  the  storm  at 
Joppa  ;  which  are  mentioned  amongst  the  earlier 


,11 


triumph.  Pliny  mentions  it : 
'  Omnibus  odoribus  praefer- 
tur  Balsamum,  uni  terrarum 
Judceae  concessum.  Osten- 
dere  arbusculam  banc  im- 
peratoresVespasiani.' — Hist. 
Nat.  XII.  liv. 

^  These  IlTyyjuaTa,  or  Plat- 
forms, were  of  various  kinds, 
and  uses ;  for  the  theatre, 
for  the  circus,  and  for  the 
triumph.  Ovid,  in  the  poem 
just  cited,  speaks  of  them  as 
common  parts  of  the  pageant. 
*  Hie  lacus,  hi  montes,  ha^c 
tot  castella,  tot  amnes.  Plena 
ferae    caedis,    plena    cruoris 


erant' — Trist.  iv.  ii.  37,  and 
again,  Ex  Fonto,  iv.  ii.  39. 
It  seems  from  the  language 
of  Josephus,  that  these  plat- 
forms consisted  not  of  mere 
pictures,  but  of  models  of 
battle-fields  in  Jerusalem  and 
in  other  places  ;  but,  whether 
these*  representations  were 
effected  by  such  automatic 
machinery  as  Seneca  de- 
scribes in  his  account  of  the 
Pegmata,  is  doubtful;  Lip- 
sius  thinks  they  were  not.  De 
Amphitheatro,  xxii.  Graevius, 
Tom.  IX. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


57 


events  of  the  history.      After  these  things  came       The 

Triumph. 

the  priests  with  the  bulls   for  sacrifice,^  adorned    a.d.  71. 
with  fillets,  garlands,  and  dorsal  cloths ;  with  corn      ^(^ 
and  wine,  and  meal,  and  frankincense.    Then  came 
the   seven   hundred   Hebrew  youths,  with  Simon 
Bargioras   and   John  of  Gischala;    all  splendidly 
attired,  and  all  in  chains :   and  after  them,  as  in 
the  most  distinguished  place,  the  spoils  that  had 
been  taken  from  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem;  the 
golden  Table,  the  golden  Candlestick,  and  last  of 
all   the    Book  of  the   Law.^     After  these  things 
there  followed  a  numerous  company  with  gold  and 
ivory  images  of  Victory.    Then  came  the  Emperor 
Vespasian    in    his    chariot,   followed    by   Titus    in 
another  chariot,^  and  by  his  younger  son,  Domi- 
tian,  who  was  consul,  oh  horseback.     After  them, 
as  on  all  such  occasions,  came  the  soldiers,  that 


^  '  Hinc  albi,  Clitumne, 
greges,  et  maxuma  taurus, 
Victima,  saepe  tuo  perfusi 
flumine  sacro,  Romanos  ad 
templa  Deum  duxere  trium- 
phos.' — Georg.\\.\\(i.  Virgil 
says  Duxere ;  for  the  victims 
preceded  the  imperator's  car  ; 
and   they  appear  upon  the 


Frieze,  though  not  mentioned 
by  Josephus. 

2  Bell.  Jud.  VII.  V.  5. 

3  Ibid.  VII.  V.  Orosius, 
Hist.  VII.  ix.  says  that  the 
father  and  the  son  were  in 
the  same  chariot;  but  Jo- 
sephus was  an  eye-witness 
of  the  Triumph. 


M  ' 


58 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


11 

1*4 


The 

Triumph. 

A.D.  71. 


Its  barba- 
rous termi- 
nation. 


had  been  engaged  in  the  war,  crowned  with  laurel, 
and  shouting  songs  of  victory,  together  with  such 
effusions  of  praise,  abuse  and  raillery,  as  they 
chose  to  bestow  upon  their  military  leaders.^  Thus 
they  went  along  the  Via  Sacra ;  the  conquerors  to 
the  Capitol,  there  to  present  their  votive  crowns 
upon  the  knees  of  Jupiter;  the  captives  to  the 
Forum,  and  thence  to  prison,  where,  on  most  occa- 
sions, the  captured  kings  and  leaders  were  put  to 
death.  Nor  do  we  find  that  the  termination  of  this 
Triumph  was  any  exception  to  this  atrocious  prac- 
tice, though  it  occurred  in  what  was  deemed  a  civi- 
lized age,  and  under  the  most  humane  of  emperors. 
When  arrived  at  the  Temple  the  procession 
halted ;  for  it  had  been  the  custom,  says  Josephus, 
there  to  wait  till  some  one  announced  the  death  of 
the  general  of  the  enemy.    This  was  Simon,  son  of 


^  In  Appian's  account  of 
Scipio's  triumph,  he  thus 
describes  its  closing  section. 
Kat  fi€T  iKetvov<s  rj  (TTpaTta 
Kara.  T€  lAa?  kat  ralet^j  ecrre- 
<l>avti)fx€vr]  Tracra  kol  oa(pvr)<f}o- 
povcra'  ol  Se  apicrTEi'i  koI  ra 
dpidTeta  iTTLKUvrai'  kol  Tiov  ap- 

)^6v'T(DV  OUS   /X€r    €7raLV0V(TLi;   oi'S 


8e  (TKOiiTTOVcnv,  oi;s  Se  xj/eyovonv. 
acjieXrjq  yap  6  Opuafjif^os'  kol  ev 
iiovorta  XeysLV  6  tl  BiXoi^v. — 
RomaJi.  Hist.  viii.  Ixvi.  Livy 
often  mentions  these  *  Incon- 
diti  versus,'  or  rude  ballads, 
as  thev  seem  to  have  been. 
— Hist.  IV.  liii. — v.  xlix. — 
xxxTX.  vii. — XLv.  xxxviii. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


59 


Gioras.     Bound  by  a  halter,  and  scourged  by  those  its  barba- 

^  rous  termi 

that  led  him,  he  was  dragged  to  the  place  of  nation 
execution ;  ^  and  as  soon  as  it  was  announced  that 
^  there  was  an  end  of  him,'  the  multitude  acknow- 
ledged it  with  a  joyful  shout.  They  then  proceeded 
to  sacrifice  the  victims;  and  having  offered  their 
usual  form  of  thanks  to  the  gods,  they  departed 
to  the  banquets  that  had  been  prepared  for  them.- 

Such  was  the  revolting  termination  of  the 
Triumph.  Yet  such  was  Rome  in  her  highest  glory; 
such  too  in  her  hour  of  greatest  joy ;  so  much 
she  still  retained  of  her  foster-mother's  nature,  and 
carried  it  with  her  to  the  brink  of  her  grave. 

For  Simon  there  was  probably  but  little  sym- 
pathy by  those  that  knew  him,  as  well  as  those 
that  did  not :  for,  though  a  man  of  remarkable 
courage  and  ability,  he  seems  to  have  been  gene- 
rally feared  and   hated.      But,  on  most  of  these 


^  Eis    Tov    cTTt   T//S   ayopa? 

icrvpETO      TOTTOV,      K.T.X.  Bcll. 

Jtid.  VII.  v.  6.  This  agrees 
with  the  site  of  the  Mamer- 
tine  prison  :  '  Career  media 
urbe  imminens  Foro.' — Livii 
Hist,  I.  xxiii  :  and  with  Ci- 
cero's account  of  the  place 


and  the  practice.  ^  Cum  de 
Foro  in  Capitolium  flectere 
incipiunt,  illos  (i.  e.  duces 
hostium)  duci  in  carcerem  : 
idemque  dies  et  victoribus 
imperii,  et  victis  vitae  finem 
facit.' — ///  Verrem^  v.  30. 
2  Bdl.Jud.  VII.  V. 


M 


1 


60 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


N 


itsbarba-    triumphal  occasions,  we  cannot  but  suppose  that 

rous  termi-  t  r  '*^ 


nation. 


li 


'I. 


'u  ' 


1 


m 


I 


many  must  have  felt  with  one  of  our  poets,  who, 
on  visiting  this  entrance  to  the  Capitol,  exclaims : 

And  what  are  they. 
Who  at  the  foot  withdraw,  a  mournful  train. 

In  fetters  ? They  are  the  fallen  ; 

Those  who  were  spared  to  grace  the  chariot  wheels; 
And  there  they  parted,  where  the  road  divides. 
The  victor  and  the  vanquished — there  withdrew ; 
He  to  the  festal  board,  and  they  to  die. 
Well  might  the  great,  the  mighty  of  the  world. 
They  who  were  wont  to  fare  deliciously. 
And  war  but  for  a  kingdom,  more  or  less. 
Shrink  back,  nor  from  their  thrones  endure  to  look. 
To  think  that  way  !     Well  might  they  in  their  state 
Humble  themselves,  and  kneel  and  supplicate 
To  be  delivered  from  a  dream  like  this.^ 

And  there,  upon  the  summit  of  the  Sacred  Way, 
that  consecrated  path,— over  whose  broad  flints 
Such  crowds  have  rolled,  so  many  storms  of  war. 

So  many  pomps,  so  many  wondering  realms,^ 

this  Arch  of  Titus  was  built. 


^  //a/}',  p.  142. 


Dyer,  J^ia'us  of  Pome,  p.  t^2. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


61 


20.  As  to  the  precise  date  of  its  erection  we  The  Arch 

^  erected  on] 

have  no  information.     But  if  not  the  first  it  was  the  via 

bacra. 

one  of  the  earliest  of  those  twenty-one  arches,  q^ 
with  which  Rome  was  once  adorned.  And,  if  not 
the  first,  it  is  one  of  the  earliest  specimens  of  that 
elaborate  order  in  which  they  were  executed : 
though  that  order  is  said  to  have  been  found  upon 
the  arch  of  Drusus,  and  even  upon  a  portico 
in  Caria.^  Not  indeed  that  triumphal  arches,  of 
some  kind  or  other,  were  of  so  late  a  date  as  this ; 
for  it  was  the  practice  of  the  Romans,  in  very 
early  times,  to  erect  arches  to  commemorate  their 
victories ;  but  at  first  they  were  of  very  rude 
construction,  and  of  no  better  material  than  stone 
or  brick ;  as  the  arch  that  was  built  in  honour  of 
Camillus,  after  the  conquest  of  Veii.^ 

21.  This  Arch   of  Titus  is  said  to  have  had  its  inscrip- 

tions. 

originally  two  Inscriptions ;  one  on  each  side  of 
the  Attic  story  with  which  it  is  surmounted  even 
now.  One  of  these  Inscriptions  is  still  legible,  as  it 
appears  upon  the  reduced  copy  of  the  photogram 
which  was  executed  in  Rome  a  few  years  since. 

^  Burton,  Antiquities  of  Rome^  vol.  i.  p.  230. 
2  Pitiscus,  Lex.  Antiq.  Rom,  s.  v.  Arcus. 


i.  I    - 


If 


i    -i 


i! 


« 


tit 


62 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


That  now 
existing. 


tions"'''"^"  The  other  Inscription  had  disappeared  from  Its 
place,  as  long  since  as  the  time  of  Donati,  that  is, 
more  than  two  hundred  years  aga  But  it  has 
been  preserved  by  Gruter ;  who  professes,  how- 
ever, his  ignorance  of  its  origin,  and  says  that 
Scaliger  considered  it  to  be  a  forgery  of  Onuphrius.^ 
On  the  story  fronting  the  Colosseum,  that  is, 
the  side  which  is  given  in  this  print,  we  have  the 
following  simple  inscription : 

SENATVS 

POPVLVSQVE    ROMANVS 

DIVO    TITO    DIVI    VESPASIANI    F. 

VESPASIANO    AVGVSTO. 

From  this  Inscription  it  appears,  not  only  that  the 
Arch  was  erected  to  Titus  by  the  Senate  and 
the  people,  but  that  it  was  not  erected  till  after 
he  became  emperor,  as  is  indicated  by  the  title 
Augustus.  Nor  was  it  erected  till  after  his  death. 
At  all  events,  if  begun  before,  it  must  have  been 
finished  after  his  decease  ;  as  he  is  here  called  Bivus, 
the  Deified.  For  though  the  Roman  poets  often 
speak  of  their  emperors  as  gods  upon  earth,  the 

^  Gruter,  Corpus  Inscript     Vol.  i.  p.  ccxliv.  b. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


63 


DivuSy  here  solemnly  assigned  by  the  Senate,  and  That  now 

existing. 

placed  upon  the  tablet,  cannot  be  mistaken. 


"^- 


And  there  is  a  curious  confirmation  of  this  in  Divus;  its 

import. 

Tacitus.     He   states   that  Anicius,   when   consul 

elect,  instead  of  voting  thanks  and  offerings  to  the 

gods,  for  Nero's  escape  from  assassination,  proposed 

that  a  temple,  at  the  public  charge,  should  be  built, 

as  soon   as  possible,    to   the    Divine    Nero.     ^A 

motion,'   says   Tacitus,    ^  by  which    he   meant  to 

intimate  that  Nero  soared  above  the  pinnacle  of 

mortality,  and  deserved  the  worship  given  to  the 

gods,   but   which   was   sHly  interpreted    by    some 

persons  as  ominous  of  Nero's  approaching  death  : 

for  divine  worship    is   not   paid  to  a  prince,   till 

he  has  ceased  to  sojourn  upon  earth/  ^ 

That  the  Arch  is  indeed  a  posthumous  tribute  is  Titus'  con- 
secration 

attested  also  by  the  circumstance,  that  on  the  ceiling  o^  apothe- 


osis. 


^  'Reperio  in  commentariis 
Senatus,  Cerealem  Anicium, 
Consulem  designatum,  pro 
sententiadixisse,  Uttemplum 
D.  Neroni  quam  maturrime 
publica  pecunia  poneretur. 
Quod  quidem  ille  decerne- 
bat,  tamquam  mortale  fasti- 


gium  egresso  et  venera- 
tionem  hominum  merito, 
quorumdam  dolo  ad  omina 
sui  exitus  vertebatur.  Nam 
Deum  honor  Principi  non 
ante  habetur,  quam  agere 
inter  homines  desierit.* — • 
Aji7ial.  XV.  74. 


M 


I  ■ 
i 


if' 

M 


Hi 


Hi 


i 


il 


64 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS' 


secration 
or 

OS  IS. 


Titus'  con-  of  the  vault  there  is  the  symbol  of  Titus*  apotheosis, 

""cration 

apothe-   or  his  enrolment  among  the  gods. 

Titus  is  represented  as  sitting  astride  upon  an 
eagle ;  and  there  are  also,  at  the  corners  of  the 
tablet,  eagles  grasping  in  their  claws  the  thunder- 
bolt ;  the    acknowledged  symbol    of  consecration. 
For  it  was  the  Roman  custom,  at  the  obsequies  of 
an   emperor,   to    have  an  eagle    concealed   at  the 
top  of  the  pile,  and,  as  soon   as  the  funeral  fire 
was  kindled,   to   let   the    eagle  fly ;    who,  as   he 
mounted   up    into  the    sky,  was  thought  by   the 
people  to  carry  the  emperor's   spirit  along  with 
him ;   and  thenceforth,  as  Herodian  remarks,   he 
was  worshipped  in  common  with  the  other  gods.^ 


^  So  Herodian  concludes 
his  account  of  the  obsequies 
of  Septimius  Severus.  'Ek  8e 
Tov  TcXevraiov  koL  f^pa^vrdrov 
KaradKCvaafJiaTcySy  uicnrcp  airo 
TWOS  €Trd\^£(t)<s,  CLETOC  ot^tcrat, 
crvv  Tto  TTvpl  dveXevaofiEVOS  clg 
rov  alOipcL,  bs  (fyipetv  aTro  yrj<s 
£S  ovpavoy  ti]V  tov  /SacrLXeuyg 
if/v)(rjv  7rL(rr€V€TaL  vtto  Vo)p.aiO)v' 
Kai  i^  EK^ivov  fi€Ta  Tutv  Xoi7rC}v 
d^Qv  $pr]tTK€VETai.  —  /fist.  IV. 


ii.  2.  Dry  den  rather  oddly 
refers  to  this  practice  at 
the  commencement  of  his 
Stajizas  on  the  Death  of 
Cromwell : — *  And  now  'tis 
time ;  for  their  officious  haste, 
Who  would  before  have 
borne  him  to  the  sky,  Like 
eager  Romans,  ere  all  rites 
were  past,  Did  let  too  soon 
the  sacred  eagle  fly.' 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


65 


CONSECRA1IO      SIVE      APOTHEOSIS      TIT  I. 
REDUCED    FROM    BARTOLl's   ADMIRANDA. 


\: 


KEYSTONE     OF     THE     EASTERN     SIDE     OF     THE     ARCH. 
REDUCED     FROM     DESGODETZ'     EDIFICES    ANTIQUES. 


i ; 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS' 


67 


i    ):!. 


I'!' 

t     , 

I 


I 


22.  The  other  Inscription,  before  referred  to.  Another 
which  is  said  to  have  been  discovered  in  the  Circus/  tion  "^" 
is  much  longer,  and  in  a  very  different  style.     It 
professes  that  the  Arch  was  erected  to  Titus ;  and 
after  recounting  his  high  offices  and  the  number  of 
his  victories,  it  adds,  that,  acting  under  his  father's 
counsels  and  auspices,  he  had  subdued  the  Jews, 
and  destroyed  Jerusalem;   which  had  either  not 
been  attempted  by  any  previous  generals,  kings,  or 
people,  or  had  been  attempted  in  vain. 

IMP.    TITO    CAESARI    DIVI 

VESPASIANI     F.    VESPASIANO 

AVG.    PONTIFICI    MAXIMO 

TRIE.    POT.    X. 
IMP.    XVII.    COS.    VIII.    P.R 
PRINCIPI    SVO    S.RQ.R 
QVOD    PRAECEPTIS    PATRIS 
CONSILIISQVE     ET     AVSPICIIS 
GENTEM     IVDAEORVM     DOMVIT 
ET    VRBEM    HIEROSOLYMAM 
OMNIBVS    ANTE    SE     DVCIBVS 
REGIBVS    GENTIBVSQVE 
AVT     FRVSTRA     PETITAM 
AVT    OMNINO    INTENTATAM 
DELEVIT. 

'  Marlianus,  I7rhs  Romce  Topog,  i„.  viii.  Grsevius,  Tom.  iii. 

F   2 


68 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Doubts 
about  it. 


Whether  this  Inscription  was  ever  attached  to 
either  side  of  the  Arch  is  uncertain  :  nor  is  it 
a  matter  of  much  importance.  It  gives  no  in- 
formation as  to  Titus,  as  acting  under  his  father^s 
counsels,  which  we  have  not  learnt  more  fully  from 
Josephus  :  and  what  it  adds,  with  regard  to  his 
assault  upon  Jerusalem,  is  matter  of  such  am- 
bitious blundering,  that  it  is  surprising  how  any 
one  could  have  ventured  on  a  statement,  at  variance 
not  only  with  Jewish  history,  but  even  with  recent 
Roman  affairs.  That  the  Romans  may  have  been 
ignorant  of  the  assaults,  that  had  been  made  upon 
Judaea  and  Jerusalem  by  neighbouring  nations,  may 
well  be  supposed,  when  we  see  the  strange  stories 
which  Tacitus  has  retailed  of  the  origin  of  the  Jews 
and  of  their  early  history.^  But  hoW  could  they 
be  ignorant  of  Pompey's  conquest,  who  had  not 
only  taken  Jerusalem,  but  had  also  made  her  tribu- 
tary to  Rome,  not  a  century  and  a  half  before  the 
time  of  Titus?'-  Such  fictions,  says  Orelli,  they 
are  apt  to  form,  who  aim  at  something  grand  or 
extraordinary.^ 

1  Tacitus,  Hist.  v.  2 — 5.  *  Inscript.    Latin,    vol.    i. 

^  Josephus,  Antiq,  xiv.  iv.      p.  184  :  and  yet  this  Inscrip- 

Tacitus,  Hist.  v.  ix.  tion  is  given  in  a  Fasciculus 


AND  THE  SPOn.S  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


69 


Nor  is  this  the  only  instance  in  which  the  name  Doubts 

■'  about  iL 

of  Titus  seems  to  have  been  thus  unduly  mag- 
nified. Pope  alludes  to  a  learned  strife,  which  had 
been  kindled  in  behalf  of  the  two  Vespasians,  by 
some  old  inscription,  that  had  suffered  in  common 
with  the  arches  and  temples  of  ancient  Rome. 

Some  felt  the  silent  stroke  of  mouldering  age. 
Some  hostile  fury,  some  religious  rage  ; 
Barbarian  blindness.  Christian  zeal  conspire. 
And  Papal  piety,  and  Gothic  fire. 
Perhaps,  by  its  own  ruins  saved  from  flame. 
Some  buried  marble  half  preserves  a  name ; 
That  name  the  learned  with  fierce  disputes  pursue, 
And  give  to  Titus  old  Vespasian's  due.*  . 

The  names,  however,  in  this  instance,  are  suffi- 
ciently discriminated  to  prevent  the  risk  of  any  such 
disastrous  misunderstanding :  nor  shall  we  take 
anything  from  the  old  Vespasian  by  rejecting  this 
inscription  as  spurious.  That  Titus  acted  under 
his  father's  auspices,  and  received  from  him  the 


Romanarum  Inscriptio7ium^ 
printed  at  Padua  1774,  ^  In 
usum  juventutis/  and  dedi- 
cated ^Tironibus  Rei  Lapi- 


darire  studiosis.' 

^  Verses  occasioned  by  Mr. 
Addison's  Treatise  of  Medals; 
prefixed  to  the  Dialogues. 


70 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITCJS 


conduct  of  the  war,  we  have  heard  already  from 
other  sources  :  it  is  only  from  Titus  we  must  pluck 
the  laurel,  here  assigned  him  by  some  foolish 
lapidary,  of  having  been  the  first  that  conquered 
the  Jewish  metropolis. 
Style  and         23.  We  may  now  turn  to  other  details  of  the 

special  por- 
tions of  the  Arch,  its  style,  and  its  historical  reminiscences. 

Arch.  ^  ^      * 

'  It  is  built  of  large  blocks  of  Parian  marble;  and, 
as  a  work  of  art,  it  has  been  much  admired. 
Whether  or  not  it  be  the  first  example  of  that 
combination,  called  the  Roman,  or  the  Composite, 
or,  as  some  have  called  it,  the  Triumphal  order, 
from  its  being  used  especially  in  these  arches,  it  is 
admitted  to  be  a  graceful  exhibition  of  it :  and 
has  been  treated  as  a  model  in  its  kind ;  the 
most  celebrated  revivers  of  Roman  architecture 
having  taken  the  proportions  of  the  order  from 
this  Arch.^ 

The  print,  to  which  we  have  already  referred, 
shows  the  side  towards  the  Colosseum,  and  cor- 
rectly represents  its  present  state.  The  other  side, 
or  Western,  towards  the  Forum,  retains  but  little 

^  Desgodetz,  Edifices  Aji-      misden,  Remarks  on  Antiqui- 
tiques,    vol.     11.     xvii.     Lu-      ties  of  Rome,  p.  341. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


71 


I 


of  its  original  form,   having   suffered  much  from   ^"'^y^'r*  *^"^^ 

^  -'  o  special  po  I- 

various  causes  ;  especially  when  the  Arch  was  used  ^^^^^^^^  ^'" 
as  a  fortress,  in  the  civil  war,  in  the  twelfth  century. 
And  so  largely  had  the  soil  accumulated  round  it, 
in  the  course  of  that  and  the  two  next  centuries, 
that  the  two  chief  tablets  were  not  visible,  till 
Sixtus  the  Fourth  made  a  way  beneath  the  vault 
down  to  the  level  of  the  ancient  pavement ;  which 
now  forms  the  pathway  through  it.^ 

The  Columns  gradually  diminish  from  the  pedes- 
tals, and  are  surmounted  by  the  usual  acanthus- 
capital,  subdivided  into  parsley-leaves ;  and  they 
were  doubtless  all  originally  alike,  as  they  are  given 
by  Donati  and  Montfaucon ;  though  the  outer 
columns  have  been  restored  in  a  manner  most 
unworthy  of  their  old  companions.  The  Volutes, 
and,  in  short,  all  parts  of  the  capitals,  as  well  as 
the  details  of  the  entablature,  are  in  a  style  of  pro- 
fuse ornament,  and  are  given  with  fine  effect  by 
Desgodetz.  The  Spandrells  are  filled  by  two 
figures  of  Fame ;  one  holding  in  her  hand  a 
standard,    the    other    apparently    a   laurel    crown. 

^  Taylor  and  Cresy,  Ar-      Burton,  Description  of  Rome, 
ckitectural  Antiquities,  p.   4.      vol.  i.  p.  237. 


7^ 


THE  ARCH   OF  TITUS 


■^lylc  ami 
sjiecial  por- 
tions of  tllf 
\rch. 


I'rie/c  and 
Tahlct>. 


I 


The  Brackets  underneath  the  cornice  are  formed 
of  dolphins  resting  upon  shells,  and  are  supposed 
to  symbolize  the  shore  of  Gennesareth.^  On  the 
Keystone,  which  is  now  much  decayed,  but  which 
was  once  considered  the  finest  in  Rome,  there  are 
the  relics  of  a  helmeted  female  figure,  probably 
designed  for  Rome  herself  She  is  standing  in 
front  of  some  military  weapons :  her  left  hand 
rests  upon  a  shield ;  with  the  right  she  seems  to 
be  in  the  act  of  welcoming  her  victorious  sons  on 
their  way  to  the  Capitol.^ 

24.  We  may  now  notice  those  more  important 
|)arts,  to  which  the  whole  structure  may  be  con- 
sidered as  subservient.  Under  the  vault,  and  on 
each  side  of  its  chamber,  are  the  two  noted  bas- 
reliefs  :  the  one  on  the  North  side  representing  the 
Emperor,  passing  through  the  city  in  his  chariot  to 
the  Capitol;  the  other,  the  spoils  which  were  carried 
before  him :  and  on  the  Frieze,  that  runs  across 
the  whole  upper  structure,  or  did,  at  least,  when 
it  was  entire,  we  have  a  representation  of  another 
part  of  the  pomp,  consisting  of  such  living  objects 

^  Taylor  and  Cresy,  Archi-      plates  iv. — viii.  pp  9 — 12. 
tccfural  Antiquities^    vol.    1.  -  See  p.  65. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


73 


li 


fl 


as  were  deemed  legitimate  subjects  for  the  Frieze, 
and  from  which,  indeed,  it  took  its  earlier  name.^ 

Here  we  have,  first,  two  Roman  soldiers,  one  TiuT'iitvc^ 
with  a  shield,  the  next  with  a  title-board  or 
placard ;  then  a  sacrificer  in  a  lictor's  apron, 
leading  two  bulls  about  to  be  offered,  in  their 
ornamented  cloths  and  fillets ;  followed  by  an 
attendant  with  a  pitcher  of  wine  and  a  basket 
of  perfumes  for  the  sacrifices.  Then  we  have 
another  priest,  leading  another  decorated  bull  ; 
soldiers  in  tunics,  crowned  with  laurel,  and  bearing 
the  Roman  oblong  shield  ;  a  person  in  a  toga  and 
another  with  a  placard.  Then  comes  another 
sacrificer  with  a  bull,  and  an  attendant  with  an 
incense-basket,  as  before ;  followed  by  senators, 
and  by  another  sacrificer  and  a  bull.  Then  we  have 
another  incense-bearer,  another  votive  bull,  and 
two  more  senators.^  And,  lastly,  we  have  several 
persons  carrying  on  a  stage  the  recumbent  figure 
of  a  bearded  old  man,  whose  left  arm  rests  upon 


^  '  Zwoi^opos  Vitruvio  dicitur 
per  ilia  in  columnis  inter 
epistylium  et  coronicem,  quae 
pulvinatis   sr^pe  figuris  visi- 


tur,    ornamentisque  diversis 
instructa.     Vulgo  La  Prize.' 
Stephens'  Ihesaurus^  s.  v. 
-  So  Bellori  ///  /. 


i 


74 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


75 


If 


J 


Tlu- 1- 


nezf 


Some 

"ions 


por- 
lost. 


an  urn.  He  is  supposed  to  represent  the  river 
Jordan,  or,  according  to  Bellori,  the  lake  of  Gen- 
nesareth;^  at  whose  south-west  corner,  where  the 
Jordan  resumes  its  course,  Titus  took,  as  we  have 
heard,  the  town  of  Tarichasa,  which  made  him 
master  of  nearly  all  Galilee.  Thus  Statius  repre- 
sents the  river  Inachus,  as  sculptured  on  the  palace 
walls  of  Argos  :  '  Pater  ipse  bicornis  In  tevam 
prona  nixus  sedet  Inachus  urna.'^  And  it  is  to 
such  figures  as  this  that  we  are  indebted  for  the 
symbols  of  our  old  Father  Thames. 

It  should  also  be  mentioned,  before  we  quit  the 
Frieze,  that,  at  each  extremity,  where  it  was  con- 
tinued over  the  capitals  of  the  outer  columns, — as 
appears  from  the  prints  of  Donati  and  Montfaucon, 
—there  was  a  female  figure,  seated  on  the  ground, 


1  i 


Tarich?eis,  ad  Lacum 
Gennesar,'  says  Bellori,  '  na- 
vali  praelio  devictis,  simula- 
crum Lacus  ipsius  in  Trium- 
pho  ducitur.'  Venuti  rather 
refers  the  figure  to  the  River 
Jordan.  '  Vi  si  vede  nel 
principio  del  fregio  scolpita 
la    figura     d'     un    Vecchio 


portata  da  due  Uomini,  che 
rappresenta  il  Fiume  Gior 
dano,  per  mostrare,  che  da 
Tito  venne  soggiogata  la 
Giudea,  seguitandovi  per  il 
sagrificio  il  Bove,  e  altre 
piccole  figure.' — Antichita  di 
Roma,  p.  14. 

'  Thebaid.  11.  217. 


IMPERATORIS     TITI      TRIUMPHALIS      POMPA. 


IN    ARCUS    TITI    ZOPHORO    VERSUS    AMPHITHEATRUM. 


REDUCED   FROM    BARTOLl's   ADMIRANDA. 


I' 


f 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS. 


77 


similar  to  those  on  the  Vespasian  coins ;   and  with  Some  por- 

*  tions  lost. 

which  indeed  we  have  been  long  familiar  in  the 
lines  which  form  the  sequel  of  those  just  cited 
from  Pope's  Ferses  on  Medals.  He  is  contending 
for  the  advantages  of  the  medal  and  the  coin, — 
and  in  this  instance  with  obvious  truth, — over  the 
records  of  the  sculptor  and  the  architect. 

Ambition  sigh'd :  she  found  it  vain  to  trust 
The  faithless  column  and  the  crumbling  bust. 
Huge  moles,  whose  shadows  stretched  from  shore 

to  shore, 
Their  ruins  perished,  and  their  place  no  more. 
Convinced,  she  now  contracts  her  vast  design. 
And  all  her  triumphs  shrink  into  a  Coin. 
A  narrow  orb  each  crowded  conquest  keeps. 
Beneath  her  palm  here  sad  Judaea  weeps. 

And  thus  has  she  continued,  for  nearly  eighteen 
centuries,  to  affirm  the  fact  of  her  subjection  to 
Rome,  and  to  illustrate  also  the  symbolism  of  her 
prophets;  who,  under  this  and  other  kindred  images, 
foretold  the  very  captivity  recorded  on  these  coins.^ 

^  See  Addison's  notice  of     engraving  at  the  end  of  this 
these  coincidences,  Dialogues     volume. 
on  Medals,^.  134;  and  the 


I 


78 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


79     . 


First 
Tablet. 
Titus  tri- 
umphant. 


25.  On  the  right  hand  side  of  the  inner  walls  of 
the  Arch,  we  have  the  Conqueror  in  his  triumphal 
car,  with  many  of  the  friends  and  attendants  who 
formed  his  personal  staff  on  the  occasion. 

The  chariot,  commonly  used  in  triumphs,  differed 
from  the  military  and  from  the  circus  chariot/  It 
was  like  a  short  circular  tower,  as  we  see  It  on  the 
Arch  and  on  coins  and  medals.  It  was  usually 
made  of  ivory  and  gold ;  a  work  of  great  artistic 
skill ;  and  it  was  generally  drawn  by  four  white 
horses  abreast.  Pompey,  on  his  return  from  Africa, 
appeared  with  elephants  harnessed  to  his  car;^  but 
the  white  horses,  which  were  introduced  by  Camll- 
lus,  at  no  small  sacrifice  of  popularity,^  was  the 
style  affected  by  most  of  the  imperators :  and  all 
the  more,  no  doubt,  from  Its  having  been  deemed 
a  sort  of  assumption  of  divine  honours. 


^  Zonaras,  A?inales,  vii. 
XXI.  Corpus  Byzant.  Tom. 
X.  p.  i. 

2  Pliny, -^/j/.  NaturaL  viii. 
§ii. 

^  *  Maxime  conspectus 
ipse  est,  curru  equis  albis 
juncto  urbem  invectus  :  pa- 
rumque  id  non  civile  modo, 


sed  humanum  etiam,  visum. 
Jovis  Solisque  equis,  aequi- 
parari  Dictatorem,  in  religi- 
onem  etiam  trahebant ;  tri- 
umphusque  ob  earn  unam 
maxime  rem  clarior,  quam 
gratior,  fuit.' — Livy,  Hist.  v. 
xxiii. 


IMPERATOKIS     TIT  I     JUDAICUS     TRIUMPHUS. 


REDUCED   FROM   BARTOLl's   ADMIRANDA. 


.*'>■. 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS. 


ai 


Titus,  as  was  usual,  is  standing  in  his  chariot,  Titus  tri- 
umphant. 

and  has  in  his  hand  a  military  baton :  the  reins  are 
hung  across  the  antux.  A  winged  figure  of  Victory, 
from  behind  him,  holds  a  large  crown  or  chaplet 
over  his  head.  Nor  was  this  altogether  an  invention 
of  the  sculptor;  for  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
person  appointed  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the 
crown  on  these  occasions :  and,  in  earlier  times,  a 
slave  was  deputed  to  stand  behind  the  conqueror  as 
he  rode  along  in  triumph,  to  remind  him, — that 
he  too  was  but  a  man,  and  should  not  be  too  much 
elated  by  his  victory.^  Juvenal  alludes  to  this 
singular  custom,  and  fancies  how  Democritus  would 


^  Tertullian  appeals  to  this 
practice,  in  defining  and 
defending  the  kind  of  reve- 
rence and  obedience  which 
were  due  from  Christians 
to  the  reigning  emperor. 
*  Non  enim  Deum  impera- 
torem  dicam,  vel  quia  men- 
tiri  nescio,  vel  quia  ilium 
deridere  non  audeo,  vel  quia 
nee  ipse  se  Deum  volet  dici. 
Si  homo  sit,  interest  homini 
Deo    cedere ;     satis    habet 


appellari  imperator.  Grande 
et  hoc  nomen  est,  quod  a 
Deo  traditur.  Negat  ilium 
imperatorem,  qui  Deumdicit : 
nisi  homo  sit,  non  est  im- 
perator. Hominem  se  esse 
etiam  triumphans  in  illo 
sublimissimo  curru  admo- 
netur.  Suggeritur  enim  ei  a 
tergo^  Respice  post  te,  homi- 
nem memento  te.'  Apologeti- 
ciis  adv,  Ge?ites,  cap.  xxxiii. ; 
Semler,  vol.  v. 


?       ! 


82 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Titus  tri-     have  been  amused  to  see  the  noble  Roman  in  such 

umphant. 

circumstances. 

In  tunica  Jovis  et  pictae  Sarrana  ferentem 
Ex  humeris  aulaea  togae,  magnasque  coronse 
Tantum  orbem,  quanto  cervix  non  sufficit  ulla. 
Quippe  tenet  sudans  banc  publicus,  et,  sibi  consul 
Ne  placeat,  curru  servus  portatur  eodem.^ 

In  Jove's  gay  tunic,  and  embroider'd  vest 
Of  Tyrian  tapestry,  superbly  drest ; 
While  at  his  side  the  sweating  menial  bore 
A  monstrous  crown,  no  mortal  ever  wore ; 
The  menial  destined  in  his  car  to  ride. 
And  cool  the  swelling  consul's  feverish  pride. 

And  there  was  something  in  this  monitory  office 
of  the  slave  characteristic  of  severe  old  Rome,  and 
of  her  just  jealousy  of  these  triumphal  honours. 
Some  indeed  of   her  distinguished  men  declined 


^  Juvenal,  Sat.  x.  38 — 42. 
Some  writers  say  that  this 
officer  was  the  Roman  Car- 
nifex;  but  his  contact  even 
with  the  crown  would  have 
been  deemed  a  pollution. 
Pitiscus,  Lex.  Antiq.  Ro7n. 
s.  v.   Carnifex.      Nor   is   it 


probable  that  he  actually 
uttered  the  admonitions,  sug- 
gested by  Tertullian.  *  Nam 
vel  silente  servo,'  as  Pitiscus 
remarks,  *  id  ille  (Imperator) 
intelligebat.'  S.  v.  Triumph- 
antes.  His  presence  in  the 
chariot  was  enough. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


83 


them ;  and  many  must  have  felt,  as  one  acknow-  Titus  tri- 
umphant. 

ledges,  that  it  was  but  a  childish  sort  of  gratifica- 
tion, and  could  give  the  conqueror  no  substantial 
pleasure.^  Milton,  from  a  higher  point  of  view 
than  Roman  magnanimity  seems  to  have  reached, 
sympathises  more  with  the  conquered  than  the 
conqueror,  and  calls  his  triumph  *  an  insulting 
vanity.'  Such  are  the  terms  in  which  he  represents 
our  Lord  as  rejecting  the  Tempter's  offer  of  these 
dignities  of  *  great  and  glorious  Rome.'  ^ 

Nor  is  the  tablet  wanting  in  any  of  its  essential 
details ;  though  Vespasian,  who  preceded  Titus,  is 
not  there,  nor   Domitian,   who   followed    him  on 


^  *  Disseres  de  triumpho  :' 
says  Cicero  :  ^  Quid  tandem 
habet  iste  currus  %  quid  vinc- 
ti  ante  currum  duces?  quid 
simulacra  oppidorum  %  quid 
aurum?  quid  argentum  ?  quid 
legati  in  equis,  et  tribuni? 
quid  clamor  militum  ?  quid 
tota  ilia  pompa  %  Inania 
sunt  ista,  mihi  crede,  delec- 
tamenta  paene  puerorum, 
captare  plausus,  vehi  per 
urbem,  conspici  velle.     Qui- 


bus  ex  rebus  nihil  est,  quod 
solidum  tenere,  nihil,  quod 
referre  ad  voluptatem  corpo- 
ris possit.'  Orat  in  Pisonem^ 
§  25.  Must  not  Cicero  have 
felt  that  there  was  truth  in 
this  disparagement  of  tri- 
umphal honours,  though  he 
puts  it  into  the  mouth  of  one 
who  decried  only  what  he 
could  not  obtain  ? 

^  Paradise    Regained^    iv. 
45,  138. 


G    2 


F(    .^' 


I    I 


Titus  tri- 
ll iiiphant. 


Second 

Tablet. 

The 

Temple 

Spoils. 


84 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


horseback.  He  is  supported,  in  the  background, 
by  twelve  lictors ;  whose  rods  of  office  are  without 
their  axes:'  and,  in  front  and  round  about  the 
chariot,  by  senators  and  others  in  their  festival 
costume, — '  an  ample  train  of  nobles  all  in  white,'  ^ 
—crowned  with  laurel  and  with  branches  in  their 
hands :  and  some  mythical  personage,  by  the  side 
of  the  chariot,  seems  to  be  marshalling  the  proces- 
sion. The  horses  are  decorated  with  the  sacred 
crescents  which  were  worn  in  the  circus  and  on  all 
great  occasions;  and  Rome  herself,  distinguished 
by  her  spear  and  helmet,  conducts  them  by  a  little 

leading  rein.^ 

26.  The  sculptures,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Arch,  represent  the  spoils  which  were  taken  from 
the  Temple.     They  are  borne   aloft  by  Roman 


1  One  might  perhaps  ex- 
pect this  omission  on  such 
an  occasion  as  a  triumph  : 
but  it  may  be  otherwise  ac- 
counted for.  By  a  regulation, 
introduced  by  Valerius,  in 
the  first  consulate,  it  was 
enacted,  that  the  axes  should 
never  be  carried  through  the 
city;  a  restriction  which  Dio- 


nysius  Halicarnassus  tells 
us  (Antiq.  Rom.  v.  xix.)  con- 
tinued up  to  his  time. 

2  '  Praecedentia  longi  Ag- 
minis  officia,  et  niveos  ad 
fr£ena  Quirites.'  Juvenal,  Sat. 
X.  44. 

3  Bellori's  Comment,  in 
Bartoli,  p.  8.  Montfaucon, 
n  Antiq.  Expl.  Tom.  v.  vii.  v. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


85 


IMrERATORIS      TITI      JUDAIC  US      TRIUMPH  US. 


REDUCED   FROM   BARTOLIS   ADMIRANDA. 


r 


\/\ 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS. 


87 


soldiers,  not  by  Jewish  captives,  as  some  writers  The 

'  •'     *'  ■*•  Temple 

represent  them ;  for  they  are  crowned  with  laurel,  Spoils. 
and  they  have  in  their  hands  the  short  and  pointless 
spears  that  had  been  given  them  when  they  started/ 
They  are  also  accompanied  by  persons  of  higher 
rank,  with  laurel  crowns  and  branches,  as  before, 
and  one  of  them  carries  some  trappings  on  his 

breast.^ 

These,  as  the  most  important  part  of  the  Spoils, 
seem  to  have  closed  this  section  of  the  pomp,  and  at 


I  • 


^  See  Note  2,  p.  52. 

2  Bellori  says,  in  reference 
to  this  figure,  which  comes 
immediately  after  the  candle- 
stick,— ^Eques  phaleris  orna- 
tus  habetcingulum  in  pectore 
cum  claviculis  aureis.'  But 
he  does  not  tell  us  what 
these  phaler<2  are,  which  this 
Roman  knight  is  carrying. 
Of  course  they  must  be  Jew- 
ish spoils.  They  are  strapped 
across  the  breast  of  the 
bearer,  and  they  remind  us 
of  the  high-priest's  ephod  and 
breastplate.  We  have,  in- 
deed, no  account  in  Josephus 


of  these  pontifical  append- 
ages having  been  exhibited 
in  the  procession;  but  he 
tells  us,  in  a  passage  already 
referred  to,  that,  together 
with  the  candlestick  and 
other  implements,  one  of  the 
priests  delivered  to  Titus 
'the  vestments  also  of  the 
high-priests,  with  the  precious 
stones;  and  many  other  ar- 
ticles belonging  to  the  sacred 
service.'       Ta    cvSv/u-ara    twv 

ap)(l€p€WVj  (TVV   TOtS    XldoL^,    Kttt 

TToWa  Twv  TTpos  Ttts  Upovpytu^ 
(rK€vo)V  aXXa.  Bell,  Jud.  vi. 
viii.  3. 


i    H 


The 
Temple 

Spoils. 


88 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


a  short  distance  before  the  conqueror's  car.  There 
are  also  three  Title-boards  above  them,  similar 
to  those  which  we  have  seen  upon  the  Frieze  ; 
which  had  probably  inscriptions,  for  the  information 
of  the  multitude,  stating  what  these  objects  were, 
and  whence  they  had  been  taken.  There  is  one 
above  the  Table,  another  near  the  Candlestick, 
and  a  third,  which  must  have  indicated  the  Book 
of  the  Law ;  which,  however,  is  no  longer  visible. 
Villalpanda  thinks  that  the  Book  was  omitted, 
as  a  less  imposing  object  ^  than  the  other  spoils.  ' 
Prideaux  suggests  that  it  was  not  inserted  for 
want  of  sufficient  space  to  introduce  it,  together 
with  the  coffer  in  which  it  was  kept.^  Dr.  Card- 
well  seems  to  think  that  this  Book  was  nothing 
more  than  a  tablet  of  gold,  or  of  some  other 
metal,  inscribed  with  some  portions  of  the  Divine 
Law ;  of  which,  he  says,  there  were  many  in  the 
Temple,  and  one  of  more  importance  than  the 
rest,  which  had  the  Ten  Commandments  engraved 
upon  it.^ 

1  *  Minus  speciosum.'  Vil-  Vol.  i.  i.  3,  p.  166. 
lalpiinda.  ^x/>/(7//af.t/i£2ec/i.  -^  Cardwell,    Adiiotat.    ad 
Tom.  II.  V.  4.  BelL  Jud.  vii.  v.  §  53. 

2  Prideaux,        Connection. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


89 


None  of  these  conjectures  are  satisfactory.    Yet  The 

Temple 

here  it  seemed  as  if  our  inquiry  must  end,  till,  on  Spoils. 
turning  to  the  pages  of  an  early  modern  writer, 
who  must  have  been  familiar  with  the  Arch,  for 
the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  appeared 
that  the  Book, — which  Josephus  describes  as  the 
last  or  crowning  object  of  the  spoils,^ — had  not 
been  forgotten  by  the  Roman  sculptor,  nor  had 
anything  else  been  substituted  for  it.  Biondo,  or 
Blondus,  as  he  is  commonly  called,  one  of  the 
earliest  of  the  Italian  antiquaries,  and  for  many 
years  the  pope's  secretary,  tells  us  in  his  work, 
De  Roma  'Triumphante^  that  the  Book  of  the 
Jewish  Law  was  extant  in  his  time,  amongst  the 
marble  sculptures  on  the  Arch,  together  with  the 
golden  Table  and  the  Candlestick :  and  it  is  a 
curious  circumstance,  which  may  account  in  some 
measure  for  the  doubts  and  conjectures  above- 
mentioned,  that  in  later  editions  of  Biondo^s 
work,  this  notice  of  the  sculptured  spoils  is 
wanting.     While  the  marble  record  was  yielding 


U  T€      VOfXOQ      O     TiOV       loV- 

8a (W    eVi    TuvTOLS    (/.  e.    the 
golden  Table  and  the  Can- 


dlestick) €cj>ep€To  rwv  Xa<^vpo)v 
TeXiVTaloS'  Bell.  Jud.  VI  I. 
V.  5- 


90 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


91 


The 

Temple 

Spoils. 


i 


to    decay    the    written    one    was    also    becoming 

obsolete.^ 

Such  then  are  the  Spoils,  which,  according  to 
Josephus,  made  the  greatest  figure  in  the  Triumph. 
Nothing  is  said  of  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant, 
which  Pitiscus  and  others  say  was  carried  in  the 
procession ;  probably  mistaking  this  Table  for  the 
Ark,  as  has  been  done  by  many  writers.  For 
Jewish  authorities  are  generally  agreed  that  there 
was  no  Ark  in  the  second  Temple.  Josephus 
says  there  was  nothing  at  all  in  the  Holy  of 
Holies  in  his  time.'^     Pompey,  on  entering,  found 


^  After  incorporating  into 
the  work  above  mentioned 
the  greater  part  of  Josephus' 
account  of  the  Triumph, 
Biondo  adds  : — '  In  Titi  Ves- 
pasiani  triumpho  inde  gratio- 
siora  sunt  quam  a  Josepho 
scribuntur ;  quod  ea  in  mar- 
moreo  triumphaU  arcu  suo 
Romse  ad  sanctam  Mariam 
novam  videmus  extare  ;  quae 
apud  Hierosolymam  in  tem- 
plo  reperta  sunt :  Mensa 
aurea,  et  Candelabrum  auro 
factum ;  cujus  formam  mehus 
lapis  quam  Joscphi  descriptio 


nobis  ostendit :  postea  por- 
tabatur  Lex  Judaeorum  mar- 
morea  item  extans.'  De 
jRomd  Triiimphantey  Lib.  x. 
p.  cxxxi.  b.  Venet.  15 11.  I 
cite  from  a  copy  in  the  Bris- 
tol City  Library.  In  two 
later  editions,  printed  by 
Froben,  at  Basil,  in  1531  and 
1559,  the*  account  of  the 
Triumph  concludes  as  in  Jo- 
sephus ;  but  it  is  not  followed 
by  an  appeal  to  the  sculptures 
on  the  Arch. 

BclL  Jud.  V.  V.  5. 


it  utterly  empty  '}  a  circumstance  which  Lucan  is  The 

^  ^   ^  ^  ^  Temple 

supposed  to  refer  to,  when,  in  speaking  of  Judaea^s  Spoils. 
subjection  to  his  hero,  he  calls  her  the  worshipper 
of  an  unknown  God." 

And,  as  from  respect  for  their  sacred  character, 
these  spoils  had  the  highest  place  of  honour  in  the 
Triumph,  a  like  distinction  was  also  assigned  them 
amongst  the  sculptured  records  of  the  Arch  ;  where 
they  still  affirm  their  high  and  ancient  origin, 
notwithstanding  all  the  changes  to  which  they 
had  been  subj'ect,  from  the  time  of  the  erection 
of  the  Tabernacle  in  the  wilderness,  till  their 
appearance  on  the  shoulders  of  their  Roman 
conquerors.  And  it  may  be  well  to  take  a  glance 
at  their  eventful  history,  as  far  as  we  can  trace 
them  through  this  long  and  chequered  interval. 

27.    What  became  of  the  Tabernacle  vessels  we  Their 

previous 

know   not :    but  we    are    told   that,  when  Nebu-  history. 
chadnezzar  took  the  Temple,  he  carried  out  the 
treasures  of  the  Lord's  House,  and  cut  in  pieces 


^  *  Inde  vulgatum.  Nulla 
intus  Deum  effigie  vacuam 
sedem  et  inania  arcana.' 
Tacitus,  Hist.  v.  9. 


^  *  Cappadoces  mea  signa 
timent,  et  dedita  sacris  In- 
certi  Judaea  dei.'  Civ.  Bell. 
II.  592. 


rf;- 


92 


THE  ARCH   OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS   OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


93 


Their 

previous 

history. 


I 


all  the  vessels  of  gold  which  Solomon  had  made 
for  the  Temple-service;^  that  is,  the  larger  and 
more  important  implements.  Many  of  the  smaller 
ones  were  taken  to  Babylon,  and,  after  having 
been  exhibited  at  Belshazzar's  feast,  were  brought 
back  on  the  return  from  the  Captivity.  Those 
that  had  been  destroyed  were  restored  by  Ezra, 
in  pursuance  of  the  orders  of  the  Persian  kings.'-' 

These  again  became  the  prey  of  the  spoiler. 
For  though  the  Jews,  under  their  Persian  rulers, 
had  much  rest  for  many  years,  a  great  change 
again  came  over  them,  and  they  fell  away  from 
the  Divine  favour.  They  began  to  affect  the  vain- 
glory of  the  Greeks,  and  to  adopt  much  of  their 
life  and  manners.  Their  high-priesthood,  having 
also  become  a  rich  and  an  important  temporal 
sovereignty,  involved  the  pontifical  families  in 
strife ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  their  feuds  about  the 
succession,  Antiochus  Epiphanes  entered  the  city, 
and  carried  off  from  the  Temple  the  golden  altar, 
and  the  candlestick,  and  the  shew-bread  table,  and 
other  costly  things ;  and  went  away  with  them 
into  his  own  land.*^     So  that,  when  Judas  Macca- 

^  ?.  Kijjgs  xxiv.  2  Ezra  vi.  vii.  ^   i  Maccah.  i. 


b^us  succeeded,  about  three  years  after  this  second  '""^^^^^^^^^ 
spoliation,  in  regaining  possession  of  the  plundered  ^^'^^°'*y- 
Temple,    he  too    had    to  enter  on   the   work   of 
restoration,  as  Ezra  and  his  companions  had  done 
before. 

^  Then,'  as  we  read  in  the  first  Book  of  the 
Maccabees,  ^they  took  whole  stones,  according 
to  the  Law,  and  built  up  a  new  altar  according  to 
the  former ;  and  made  up  the  sanctuary  and  the 
things  that  were  within  the  Temple,  and  hallowed 
the  courts.  They  made  also  new  holy  vessels ;  and 
into  the  Temple  they  brought  the  Candlestick,^ 
and  the  Altar  of  incense  and  the  Table.  And  upon 
the  Altar  they  burnt  incense ;  and  the  lamps  that 
were  upon  the  Candlestick  they  lighted,  that  they 
might  give  light  in  the  Temple.  Furthermore, 
they  set  the  loaves  upon  the  Table,  and  spread  out 


^  In  our  common  version 
there  is  here  an  interpolation. 
*  And  into  the  Temple  they 
brought  the  candlestick  and 
the  altar  of  hirnt-offermg  and 
of  incense.'  But  the  burnt- 
offering  altar  had  no  place  in 
the  vaos  or  sanctuary,  and  its 


restoration  by  Judas  is  men- 
tioned just  before,  v.  47 .  Our 
translators  seem  to  have  fol- 
lowed the  Alexandrian  text 
instead  of  the  Vatican ;  in 
which  dXoKauTw/AaTwv  /cat  are 
wanting. 


Their 

previous 

history. 


I    P^ 


It' 


Date  of 
their  con- 
struction. 
B.C.  164. 


94 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


the  veils,  and  finished  all  the  works  which  they  had 
begun  to  make.'^  And,  in  devout  commemoration 
of  these  events,  they  instituted  the  Feast  of  the 
Dedication ;  at  which,  about  two  centuries  after, 
our  Lord,  as  the  Evangelist  relates,  was  present, 
and  walked  in  the  Temple  in  Solomon's  porch.  ^ 

Thus  the  Hebrew  Ritual  was  once  more 
restored ;  and,  by  the  superintending  care  of  its 
Divine  Author,  it  continued  till  those  vessels  of 
the  worldly  sanctuary,  with  the  sanctuary  itself, 
were  superseded  by  the  manifestation  of  the  new 
and  living  Way  into  the  Holiest  of  all  by  the 
blood  of  Jesus  ;  according  to  the  order  of  the 
true  Tabernacle  which  the  Lord  pitched  and  not 
man.^ 

These  vessels  then,  which  were  carried  in 
the  Triumph,  date  their  construction  from  this 
cleansing  of  the  Temple,  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  years  before  its  pillage  and  destruction  by 
the  Romans.  And,  though  nothing  is  said  of  any 
models  or  directions,  which  Judas  Maccabeus  had 
recourse  to  in  his  work,  we  may  conclude  that 

1  I  Maccab.  iv.  47—51-  ^  John  x.  22,  23. 

3  Hebrews  ix.  8;  x.  19;  viii.  2. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


95 


he  would  look  to  the  Old  Testament  ritual, — to 
the  pattern  originally  given  to  Moses :  and  it  will 
be  interesting  to  the  Biblical  student  to  see  how 
these  reconstructions,  in  their  chief  features,  appear 
to  justify  their  venerable  paternity. 

28.  The  rules  for  the  construction  of  the  Shew- 
bread  Table  are  given  at  large  in  the  Book  of 
Exodus. 

'  Thou  shalt  also  make  a  Table  of  Shittim 
wood,'  that  is,  of  the  wild  Acacia  of  the  desert*/ 
'two  cubits  shall  be  the  length  thereof,  and  a 
cubit  the  breadth  thereof,  and  a  cubit  and  a  half 
the  height  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  overlay  it 
with  pure  gold,  and  make  thereto  a  crown  of  gold 
round  about.  And  thou  shalt  make  unto  it  a 
border  of  a  hand-breadth  round  about,  and  thou 
shalt  make  a  golden  crown  to  the  border  thereof 
round  about.'  ^ 

As  to  the  relative  proportions  of  these  Tables, — 
the  draft  in  Scripture  and  the  sculptured  figure, — 


Date  of 
their  con- 
struction. 
B.C.    164. 


The  Shew 

bread 

Table. 


Order  for 
its  con- 
struction. 


Compared 
with  sculp- 
tures on 
the  Arch. 


^  Gesenius,  s.  v.  Shittah. 
It  was  the  chief  growth  of 
the  Desert,  though  rare  in 
Palestine.       An    incidental 


confirmation  of  the  text. 
Dean  Stanley's  Sinai  and 
Palestine^  p.  20. 

2  Exodus  XXV.  23 — 25. 


.^■■3" 


96 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


I*         ^ 


1 


Order  for    there  is  a  general  agreement  in  length  and  height. 

the  Table 

compared    xhc  breadth  of  course  is  lost  in  a  bas-relief;  though 

with  the 

Sculptures,  ^j^^  sculptor  has  rather  unartistically  given  us  three 
sides  in  one  view.  We  must  make,  however, 
the  most  of  what  the  hand  of  Time  has  left  us ; 
and  must  direct  our  attention  almost  exclusively 
to  Reland's  authentic  copy  of  the  Table.  For  we 
learn  from  one  of  the  artists  employed  by  him,^ 
that,  on  close  inspection  of  the  Sculptures  from  a 
scaffold,  which  he  had  erected  to  facilitate  his 
work,  he  found  them  to  be  different  in  some  par- 
ticulars from  what  he  had  supposed  them  to  be 
from  below.  Bartoli's  representation  of  the  Table, 
in  the  print  of  the  spoils  which  has  just  come 
before  us,  though  a  few  years  earlier  than  that  of 
Reland,  is  not  an  exact  copy  of  the  Table,  at  that 
time.  Nor  was  it  his  object  to  give  these  Sculp- 
tures in  the  state  of  decay  in  which  he  found  them; 
but,  as  we  learn  from  the  title  of  his  work,  to 


1  See  Letter  to  Reland  by 
Antony  Twyman,  June  20, 
17 10.  He  is  speaking  espe- 
cially of  the  Candlestick;  but 
the   remark   applies   to   the 


other  sculptures  ;  which  were 
copied  at  the  same  time  by 
another  artist.  De  Spoliis 
Templi  Hierosol.  in  Arcu 
Titiano.  cap.  i.  p.  5. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


97 


THE    SHEWBREAD    TABLE,  WITH    ITS     MEMORIAL    CUPS 

AND    THE    TRUMPETS. 

AS   THEY   APPEARED   A.  D,    MDCCX. 


FROM    RELAND,    DE   SPULIIS   TEMPLI    UlEROSOLYMrrANI    IN   ARCL 

TITIANO. 


H 


;m 


l'  ..ij"^^ 


'W 


lit        \ 


i 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS. 


9^ 


represent  them  as  restored  to  their  original  beauty :   The  Shew- 

bread 

a  work  which^  with  the  exception  of  a  few  arbitrary   Table. 
details^  he  has  executed  with  great  effect. 

One  of  the  first  things  that  strike  us  in  this 
sculptured  Table  is  the  circumstance  that  its  sur- 
face is  not  surmounted  by  that  serrated  sort  of 
border,  which  is  attached  to  all  the  ordinary  prints 
of  it;  but  for  which  there  appears  to  be  no  au- 
thority.^ 

We  read  indeed  that  the  Table  was  to  have  what 
is  called,  in  our  version,  a  crown  of  gold ;  that  is, 
a  golden  wreath  or'  border,^  all  round  the  frame- 
work ;  which  still  forms  part  of  the  sculptured 
work;  the  upper  frame  remaining,  though  much 
decayed,  the  lower  one  reduced  to  two  mere  frag- 
ments. We  may  also  trace  upon  the  frames 
themselves  this  ^border  of  a  handbreadth  round 
about,'  or  rather  the  marks  of  the  place  where  it 
had  been ;  a  sort  of  narrow  groove  or  indentation, 
as  Josephus  describes  it  in  his  Antiquities? 

1  Reland,  De  Spoliis,  cap. 
vii.  pp.  70,  71. 

^  Avenarius,    Lex.   Hebr. 
s.  V.  IT  p.  213. 

KoiXati'f-at  .  .  .  Kara  ira- 

H   2 


\Q.iaT'r]V  TO  eSaipog  eXiKog  Trepi- 
dEOv(rr]S  TO  T€  avu)  Koi  ro  Karcj 
fiipo'S   Tov    o-(J^aro?.      Antiq, 
Jud.  III.  vi.  6. 


lOO 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


n 


I  i'i 


The  Shew- 

bread 

Table. 


The  Ritual  also  directs  that  the  Table  shall  have 
four   golden  rings  in  the  corners  of  the  feet,  for 
receivincT  the  staves  by  which  it  was  to  be  carried ;  ^ 
and  Villalpanda  suggests  that  the  fragments  of  the 
frame,  which  once  connected  the  legs  of  the  Table,— 
two  of  which  have  long  since  disappeared,— indi- 
cate the  places  of  two  of  these  rings.'     But  it  is 
doubtful  whether  there  were  any  such  appliances 
in    the    Table   which   was    made    for    Solomon's 
Temple,    when    the    service    was    limited    to    one 
locality : '  and  it  is  not  probable  that  they  would 
be  restored  in  any  subsequent  reconstructions. 

We  may  also  observe  that,  though  in  Bartoli's 
Table '  he  has  restored  some  parts  of  the  original 
design,  he  is  not  correct  in  the  plinth  which  he  has 
added,  as  the  base  on  which  the  Table  rests.  In 
Reland's  print,'  which  may  be  regarded  as  authentic, 
and  which  exactly  agrees  with  the  present  state  of 
the  sculpture,  except  that  now  it  is  still  more 
decayed,  instead  of  this   plinth  there   is   nothing 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


lOI 


1  Exodus  XXV.  26,  27. 

2  Explanat,  Ezech,  v.  iv. 


70. 


^  Jahn,  Archceologia  Bib- 


lica,  §   331  :   e  contra,  Re- 
land,  De  SpoliiSy  cap.  x. 

*  See  print,  p.  85. 

'*  See  p.  97- 


more    than    the    stage   on  which   the    spoils   were  TheShew- 

bread 

carried  in  the  procession ;  as  is  indicated  also  by  Table. 
the  peculiar   formation  of  the  only  foot  which  is 
visible. 

.  Josephus  compares  the  Shewbread  Table  with 
what  were  then  called  Delphic  tables,  a  costly  kind 
of  furniture  then  common  in  Rome."^  The  upper 
parts  of  the  feet,  he  says,  were  square,  the  lower 
parts  were  perfectly  finished,  like  those  attached  to 
Doric  couches ;  ^  which  probably  means  that  they 
terminated  in  the  finished  foot  of  an  animal ;  as 


tSpvcrat  (Mo)i)o-^s)  A€A<^iKars 
7rapa7r\7](Tiav.  Antiq.  Jlld. 
III.  vi.  6.  Bishop  Patrick 
understands  Josephus  as 
saying  that  the  Shewbread 
Table  *  was  like  the  famou's 
Table  at  Delphi.'  Comment. 
on  Exod.  XXV.  23.  But,  if 
such  had  been  his  meaning, 
would  he  not  have  said  ttJ 
kv  AcX^ots  TrapaTrXrjarLav,  not 
AeX(l>iKaL<i  1  These  Delphics^ 
as  they  were  called,  were  a 
sort  of  abacus  or  sideboard, 
overlaid  with  gold  or  silver ; 


the  chief  matter  of  compa- 
rison with  the  Shewbread 
Table  :  for  in  *  some  things 
they  could  not  have  been 
much  alike. 

^  *Ho-ai^  8'  avrr^  ttoScs,  ra 
\iXv  c^  rjfjiiaovs  ew?  tojv  KciTto 
TcXecDS  OLTrqpTLaixevot,  ots  Ao)- 
ptcts  irpocmBucrL    rats   KXtvats 

€flcl)€p€LS,     TO       8c       TTpO?      aVTTJV 

dvaTelvov  rerpayiDVOL  rrj  epya- 
o-ia.  Antiq.  Jud.  ill.  vi.  6. 
The  quadrangular  edges,  if 
indeed  they  were  copied  by 
the  sculptor,  appear  to  be 
worn  away. 


-> 


I02 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


■1 
.1 


;  V. 


The  Shew-  appears  in  Reland's  copy  of  the  sculptured  work. 

TaWe.  So  that  in  this  respect  the  Table  in  the  spoils, 
though  it  agreed  with  the  one  with  which  Josephus 
was  familiar,  must  have  differed  from  the  draft  in 
the  sacred  ritual :  a  difference  which  was  probably 
owing  to  the  fancy  of  the  last  restorers  of  the  Tem- 
ple-service, or  of  some  Grecian  artist  employed  by 
them.  That  this  figure,  however,  is  the  Shewbread 
Table,  we  have  other  and  not  uninteresting  proof 

There  were  four  sets  of  vessels  belonging  to  this 
Table;  and  Reland  has  expended  much  curious 
learning  in  endeavouring  to  distinguish  their  several 
forms  and  uses.^  There  was  also,  as  we  learn  from 
a  Rabbinical  writer,  a  large  staff  of  officers  who 
had  to  attend  upon  it :'  for  it  was  evidently  served 
with  great  ceremony ;  according  to  the  character  of 
that  Dispensation,  which  might  well  be  called  the 
^Mother  of  Form  and  Fear;'  but  which  was 
wisely  designed  to  instruct  her  children  in  the  ways 
best  adapted  to  their  age  and  circumstances. 

We  learn  from  the  ritual  order  in  Leviticus,  that 
twelve  Cakes  of  fine  flour,  according  to  the  number 
of  the  tribes  of  the  people,  were  to  be  set  upon  the 
^  De  Spoliis,  cap.  xi.  -  Ibid.  p.  117. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  103 

Table  continually,  in  two  piles  of  six  cakes  each ;  ^^^|^^^" 
and  that  a  Cup  of  pure  Frankincense,  for  a  memo-  ^abie. 
rial  to  the  Lord,  was  to  be  placed  upon  each  pile. 
The  Cakes  were  to  be  changed  every  sabbath  day, 
and  to  be  distributed  amongst  the  priests ;  and  the 
Frankincense,  that  had  been  placed  upon  them, 
was  to  be  burnt ;  in  token  that  the  Bread,  though 
not  to  be  destroyed,  had  been  given  to  the  Lord 
as  a  burnt  offering.^ 

As  to  the  mystic  purport  of  this  ordinance, 
though  it  does  not  necessarily  belong  to  our 
inquiry,  it  may  tend  to  throw  some  light  upon  it. 
This  Holy  Place  of  the  Lord's  House,  what  was  it 
but  a  figure  of  that  Church  or  community  into 
which  his  covenant  people  were  admitted  by  the 
Sacrifice  and  the  Laver  in  the  outer  court  ?  What 
the  priests,  who  ministered  therein,  but  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  chosen  people,  thus  brought  into 
near  and  privileged  communion  with  Him  who 
dwelt  especially  within  the  inner  veils  ?  And  what 
the  Bread,  which  they  placed  there  before  Him, — 
thence  called  the  Bread  of  his  presence, — but  the 
common  symbols  of  those  elements  of  Life, — it 

1  Levit.  xxiv.  5 — 9. 


'.HI  ' 


104 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


l\ 


i\ 


m 


The  Shew-  may  be  of  Life  both  bodily  and  spiritual, — which 
Table.  j^jg  people  were  always  receiving  at  his  hands,  and 
were  always  again  devoting  to  his  service ;  and  of 
which  this  Incense  was  the  well-known  figure ;  a 
sort  of  embodied  act  of  praise,  continually  ascend- 
ing to  the  gracious  Giver  ?  ^  And  we  learn  from 
Josephus'  account  of  the  Table,  that  there  were 
two  small  golden  Cups,  belonging  to  it,  for  holding 
the  Frankincense  in  these  services.^ 

These  are  undoubtedly  the  two  Cups  which  we 
still  see  upon  the  sculptured  table;  and  which 
were  probably  brought  to  Titus  by  one  of  the 
priests,  who  is  said  to  have  rescued  many  of  the 
spoils.  In  Bartoli's  engraving^ — why,  we  cannot 
say, —  there   appears   to    be   only    one   Cup :    in 


The  me- 
morial 
Cups. 


^  Such  is  Tirin's  explica- 
tion of  this  ordinance.  *  Per 
hos  panes  xii.  Tribus  pul- 
chre  significabant  se  a  Deo 
continuo  ali,  et  gratitudinis 
ergo  perpetuum  quasi  sacri- 
ficium  illi  offerre,  et  vicem 
referre  :  nam  et  Thus  pani- 
bus  istis  imponebant  {Levii. 
xxiv.),  et  a  solis  sacerdotibus 
edendi  erant  hi  panes.'     Pol, 


Syn.  in  Exod.  xxv.  30. 

-  'EttI  To-vTr]^  (/.^.  the  Table) 
SLeridea-av  apTO)v  re  StuSeica 
a^i'/xovs  Kara  k^,  aTraXkrjXovs 
K€Lfxevov<s,  KaOapov  Travv  tov 
dXevpov  €K  8vo  dcrcrapwvuiv' 
vTrep  Se  tujv  dprtiiv  irlOevTO 
hvo  cjiiaXaL  ■^(pvcreai,  Xt^a.v(t)- 
Tov  7rX7]p€L<;.  Antiq.  Jiid.  ill. 
vi.  6. 

2  See  p.  85. 


AND  thp:  spoils  of  the  temple. 


105 


Reland's  ^  one  of  them  is  much  decayed,  in  conse-  The  me- 

■'  morial 

quence  of  an  extensive  fissure  in  the  marble  ;  and,  ^^p^* 
judging  from  recent  photographic  prints,  this  Cup 
will  probably  ere  long  be  hardly  visible.  There 
can,  however,  be  no  doubt  that  these  Cups  represent 
those  appendages  of  the  Table  which  served  to 
mark  the  rites  of  the  conquered.  Nor  can  their 
small  dimensions  lessen  their  importance.  For,  as 
we  learn  from  a  Rabbinical  commentary  on  Levi- 
ticus,^ that  the  priests  used  only  two  handfuls  of 
Frankincense,  one  for  each  pile  of  Bread,  these 
Cups  would  be  large  enough  to  hold  it :  and  as  a 
part  therefore  of  the  Table's  furniture,  for  holding 
what  the  Hebrews  called  the  Azcarah^\  the  fire- 


^  See  p.  97. 

2  *  lUud  te,  lector,  esse 
admonitum  volo,'  says  Re- 
land,  '  ut  ad  harum  acer- 
rarum  attendas  magnitudi- 
nem,  quae  satis  bene  con- 
venit  cum  iis  quae  Judaei  de 
ilia  tradunt.  Volunt  pugil- 
liim  t hurts,  rriTi"?  ymp,  singu- 
lis fuisse  impositum.  Disertis 
verbis  id  R.  Simeon  tradit, 
cujus   sententia    refertur   in 


Siphra,  fol.  262.  i.  *  Re- 
quiruntur  duo  pugilli  thuris, 
unus  pugillus  plenus  pro  uno 
ordine  panum,  alter  pro  al- 
tero.' — De  Spoliis,  cap.  xi. 

^  Kurtz  on  Sacrifical  Wor- 
ship, III.  ii.  §  148.  In  the 
LXX.  it  is  rendered  fjLvrjfxo- 
(Tvvov;  in  the  Vulgate,  Me- 
moriale ;  by  Bunsen,  Fire- 
portion. 


« I 


io6 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


The 
sacrea 


portion,  or  sacred  memorial,  they  had  good  reason 
to  be  there. 

28.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  Trumpets? 
Trumpets.  Josephus,  in  his  enumeration  of  the  spoils,  makes 
no  mention  of  the  Trumpets  as  having  formed 
part  of  them,  though  he  says  expressly,  as  we 
have  heard  already,  that  he  does  not  profess  to 
give  an  account  of  all  the  spoils.  Yet,  as  he 
appears  to  have  been  present  at  the  procession,  we 
cannot  but  conclude  that,  if  the  Trumpets  were 
borne  in  it,  they  could  not  have  had  so  conspicuous 
a  place  as  they  have  upon  the  sculptured  tablet. 

He  describes  in  his  Antiquities  the  kind  of 
Trumpet  which  was  used  in  his  time  in  the 
Temple-service;  and  it  agrees  with  the  figures 
here  given.  Moses,  he  says,  was  its  inventor;  it 
was  made  of  silver,  a  little  shorter  than  a  cubit ; 
its  mouth  was  a  little  larger  than  that  of  a  flute, 
just  wide  enough  to  admit  the  breath ;  it  ended, 
like  common  trumpets,  in  the  shape  of  a  bell ; 
it  was  called  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  Asosra} 


^  EiJpc  })\  Koi  ^vKdv7j<s  rpo- 
troVy  £^  dpyvpLOv  7roir]crd/jL€VO<;. 
€<rTt    Sc    Toiavrrj'    fLrJKoq     ficp 


(TT€V7J    ^     €cni    (Tvpiy^    avXov 
^pa-^v    Tra^vripay     7rap€^ovaa 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


107 


This  word  is  obviously  one  of  that  class,  which  The 
are  designed  to  be  an  echo  of  the  sense,  though  Trumpets. 
Asosra  but  feebly  represents  the  force  of  the 
Hebrew  original,  Chatzotzerah  ;  in  which  the  effect, 
as  Ewald  remarks,^  of  the  position  of  the  second 
and  third  radical  letters,  reminds  us  of  the  broken 
crashing  of  the  Trumpet's  blast. 

The  order  for  the  construction  and  the  use  of 
these  Trumpets  is  given  at  length  in  the  Book  of 
Numbers. 

^And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying. 
Make  thee  two  Trumpets  of  silver ;  of  a  whole 
piece  shalt  thou  make  them:  that  thou  mayest 
use  them  for  the  calling  of  the  assembly,  and  for 
the  journeying  of  the  camps.'  Then  we  have 
various  military  signals,  which  are  to  be  given  in 
various  emergencies.  'And  the  sons  of  Aaron, 
the  priest,  shall  blow  with  the  Trumpets;  and 
they  shall   be  to  you   for  an  ordinance  for  ever 


^e  €i)pos  dpKovv  lirl  tm  (TTOfiaTi 
TTpo^  VTTo^oxrjV  TTi/eu/zaros,  eh 
K(i)d(i)va  raTs  adXTny^i  napa- 
7rXrfai(i)<s  tcXovV  dcrwo-pa  Ka- 
Xclrat  KaraTrlv  'E/Spaiufv  yXwr- 
rav.     Antiq.  Jud,  in.  xii.  6. 


^  See  his  remarks  on  the 
onomatopoetic  structure  of 
'^l^^ry.  Hebrew  Grammar ^ 
by  Nicholson,  §  i^iZ'-  also 
Gesenius,  Lex.  Hebr.  s.  v. 


4 


io8 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


The  throughout   your  generations.     And  if  ye  go   to 

sacred  ^ 

Trumpets,  y^^^j.  j^  your  land  against  the  enemy  that  oppresseth 
you,  then  ye  shall  blow  an  alarm  with  the 
Trumpets;  and  ye  shall  be  remembered  before 
the  Lord  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  saved  from 
your  enemies.  Also  in  the  day  of  your  gladness, 
and  in  your  solemn  days,  and  in  the  beginnings  of 
your  months,  ye  shall  blow  with  the  Trumpets 
over  your  burnt  offerings,  and  over  the  sacrifices  of 
your  peace  offerings ;  that  they  may  be  to  you  for 
a  memorial  before  your  God  :  I  am  the  Lord  your 

God.'^ 

And  these  Trumpets,  which  are  called  by  Moses 
the  Chatzotzeroth,  are  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  one  called  Shophar^  the  common  designation  of 
the  Jubilee  trumpet;^  which  was  curved,  and  is 
properly  called  a  Cornet,  as  in  our  version  of  the 
ninety-eighth  Psalm,  where  we  have  both  words 
in  the  same  line.  '  With  trumpets  and  sound  of 
the  cornet  make  a  joyful  noise  before  the  Lord, 
the  King.'^     Our  Biblical  antiquaries  must  there- 


^  Numbers  x.  i,  2,  8 — 10. 

2  Levit.  XXV.  9. 

*  In  Coverdale's  version, 


still  in  use  in  our  Psalter, 
instead  of  cornet  we  have 
shawms,      '  With    trumpets 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


109 


fore  be  mistaken  in  saying  that  these  sculptured  The 

sacred 

figures  on  the  Arch  represent  the  Jubilee  trumpets;^  Trumpets, 
from  which  they  differed  in  size  and  in  structure, 
as  well  as  in  some  of  the  sacred  uses  in  which  they 
were  employed  in  the  service  of  the  sanctuary. 
They  were  probably  amongst  the  Temple  spoils, 
which  Josephus  tells  us  were  brought  to  Titus; 
and  which,  if  not  actually  arranged  in  the  pomp, 
as  we  here  see  them  upon  the  rails  of  the  Table, 
were  so  placed  by  the  Roman  sculptor  with  an 
obviously  ingenious  graphic  effect. 

30.  It  only  remains  to  notice  the  Candlestick,  The 

seven- 

which  was  also  carried  in  the  triumph.  branched 

Jt  Candle- 

'  This  Candlestick,'  says  Josephus,  '  was,  like  '^'''^' 


also,  and  shawms,  O  shew 
yourselves  joyful  before  the 
Lord  the  King.'  Our  ety- 
mologists are  not  agreed  as 
to  this  word.  Tyrwhitt,  on 
Chaucer,  makes  it  identical 
with  psalteries.  Skinner  : 
*  Lituus  a  verbo  shallen  reso- 
nare,  nisi  a  psalmis  malis 
deflectere;  prius  tamen  magis 
placet.'  Richardson  derives 
it  from  the  French,  Chalemie 


and  Chalmelle,  a  reed  or 
pipe.  The  word  was  no 
doubt  extant  amongst  us  in 
Wycliffe's  time,  but  he  pre- 
fers a  simple  version  of  the 
Vulgate :  '■  In  tubis  ductili- 
bus  et  voce  tubae  comeae.' 
'  In  trumpis  beten  out,  and  in 
vois  of  the  homene  trumpe.' 
^  Home's  Inti-oductioji^ 
Pt.  III.  chap.  i.  sect.  ii.  vol. 
III. 


' 


} 


no 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


The 

seven- 
branched 
Candle- 
stick. 


■  t 


the  Table,  made  of  gold,  but  it  was  arranged 
in  a  different  manner  from  those  in  common  use 
amongst  us.  For  it  had  a  middle  column,  fixed 
upon  a  basis,  and  slender  stalks  extended  out 
from  it,  very  similar  in  their  position  to  the  figure 
of  a  trident,  each  constructed  with  a  lamp  on  the 
top.  And  these  lamps  were  seven  ;  indicating  the 
honour  of  the  hebdomad  amongst  the  Jews/  ^ 

The  purport  of  this  passage  seems  to  be,  that* 
this  Candlestick  differed  in  its  structure  from  those 
in  common  use  amongst  the  people,  and  also  from 
those  in  other  parts  of  the  Temple ;  which  were 
probably  numerous,  as  in  Solomon's  time.^  It 
differed  from  them  especially  as  to  its  tridental 
shape,  and  also  as  to  the  number  of  its  lamps, 
which  was  held  in  mystic  honour  in  Israel. 

So  also    the    Talmud    enjoins, — That   no    one 


^  Xpvcrfj  T€  TpCtTTC^a  T7)y 
oXKrjv  TroXirrd\ayTO<s,  koI  \v\- 
vCa  "^vcrov  fxkv  oyioiuiq  ire- 
TTOLYi^ivq'  TO  he.  epyov  HrjX- 
XaKTO  Tijg  Kara  t^v  rjfjLETepay 
^(pfienv  ffvvrideiag.  'O  fiey  yap 
fxiaoQ  rjv  Kioiy  ek  Tfjg  /3d(Te(i)Q 
7r€7r7/yo)c,  XcTrrot  3'  utt'  avToi! 
fiEfirjKvyTO  KavXioTKOi,   rpiaivrig 


cr^rJiiiaTL  TrapaTrXrjcrLav  t^v 
Oecriy  t^ovTEQ^  Xv^ov  CKaorrog 
avTOfV  Eir  aKpioy  kc^uXkev- 
jiEVog.  ETrrct  ^e  rjtray  ovroif 
Tfjg  TTapa  Tolg  'lov^aioig  e^Bo- 
fid^og  T))y  TLfiiiy  IfK^ayi^oyTEg. 
Bell.  Jud.  VII.  V.  5. 

^  I  Chron.  xxviii.  14,  15. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


Ill 


THE    SEVEN-BRANCHED    CANDLESTICK. 


AS   II    APPEARED  A.D.    MDCCX. 


FROM    RELAND,    OE   SPOLIIS   TEMPLI    HIEROSOLYMITANI   IN  ARCU 

TITIANO. 


; 


Y\ 


1 


f, 


I 


I 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS. 


113 


{• 


^1 


shall  build  a  House  after  the  likeness  of  the  Holy  And  order 

1  11,.,.  ^^^  ii^s  con- 

one  ;  nor  make  a  table  like  its  Table ;  nor  form  a  stmction. 

Lampstand  like  the  sacred  one ;  for  though  they 
might  make  one  of  five,  or  six,  or  eight  branches, 
they  were  not  to  construct  one  of  seven ;  even 
though  they  made  it  not  of  gold,  but  of  any 
other  metal.  ^ 

Such  was  obviously  the  great  Candlestick,  of 
which  we  have  the  figure  on  the  Arch.  It  has  the 
centre  shaft  and  the  six  branches  :  and  they  are 
spread  out  in  the  manner  of  a  trident ;  that  is, 
not  in  many  and  different  directions,  as  is  usual 
with  the  branches  of  modern  candelabra,  but  all 
extended  in  the  same  plane. 

In  one  respect,  indeed,  there  seems  to  be  a 
difference  between  the  sculptured  figure  and  the 
description  in  Josephus.  He  says  that  the 
branches  of  the  Candlestick  were  slender ;  which 
cannot  be  said  of  the  sculptured  branches,  as 
compared  With  other  objects  on  the  tablet.  Reland 
conjectures  that  the  Roman  sculptor  made  the 
branches  larger  than  they  were  in  the  original,  in 
order  to  give  more  importance  to  the  figure,  and 

1  J^ffsA  Hasschaiia,  fol.  25,  in  Reland,  De  Spoliis,  pp.  15,  16. 

I 


•*j 


fe 
-?•* 


114 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


II 


The 
seven- 
branched 
Candle- 
stick. 


I- 


H 


M 
;* 


r- 


to  compensate  for  its  distance  from  spectators 
below;  as  the  bas-reliefs  on  Trajan's  column  are 
said  to  Increase  in  size  as  they  approach  its  sum- 
mit.^ Nothing  is  said  in  the  sacred  ritual  as  to 
the  size  of  the  Candlestick,  or  as  to  the  relative 
proportions  of  its  parts ;  but  it  speaks  with  great 
precision  of  the  construction  of  the  branches. 

'And  thou  shalt  make  a  Candlestick  of  pure 
gold:  of  beaten  work  shall  the  Candlestick  be 
made:  its  shaft  and  its  branches,  its  bowls,  its 
knops,  and  its  flowers,  shall  be  of  the  same.  And 
six  branches  shall  come  out  of  the  sides  of  it  ; 
three  branches  of  the  Candlestick  out  of  the  one 
side,  and  three  branches  of  the  Candlestick  out 
of  the  other  side.'  ^ 

So  far  the  ritual  and  the  sculptured  form  agree : 
but  there  is  more  detail  in  what  follows. 

'  Three  bowls,  made  like  unto  almonds,  with  a 
knop  and  a  flower  in  one  branch ;  and  three  bowls 
made  like  almonds  in  the  other  branch,  with  a 
knop  and  a  flower  :  so  in  the  six  branches  that 
come  out  of  the  Candlestick.*  ^ 

1  De  Spoliis,  cap.  iv.  ^  Exodus  xxv.  31,  32. 

2  Ibid,  xxv.  33. 


Here  we   have  an    account,    not   only  of  the  And  order 
branches,  and  of  the  shaft,  which  forms  the  seventh  stmcdon. 
light,  but  also  of  certain  ornaments  upon  each  of 
the  branches. 

The  word  Geviyim,  translated  Bowls,  generally 
means  the  calices  or  cups  of  flowers;  here  more 
especially  that  of  the  almond ;  and  probably  de- 
notes the  sort  of  cup  which  is  above  and  below 
each  of  the  knops.^  The  word  Capthoriniy  trans- 
lated Knops,  is  rendered  by  Josephus  'pome- 
granates.* It  seems  to  denote  the  balls  or  apples 
which  occur  between  the  upper  and  lower  cups.^ 
Perachim,  which  Gesenius  renders  '  an  artificial 
flower,'  denotes  the  lily-like  blossom,  which  we  see 


^  Furst,  Vet.  Test  Con- 
cord, s.  V.  T}.},  'Calyx 
florum,  sicut  calyx  gland  is, 
KvTTapoQ.'  But  in  addition 
to  n-rijj  we  have  ^'li^tP, 
which  the  LXX.  render  Ikte- 
Tvirtofiivoi  Kapvt:aKov<Sj  that  is, 
says  Reland,  '  Incisos  forma 
amygdali,  vel  nucis,  ita  ut 
partes  incisae  amygdalum  re- 
ferant ;  Kapviyrjv  enim  non- 
nulli,   quod  alii  afivyda\Li'r)v 


vertunt.'  —  I?e  Spoliis,  pp. 
53>  54-     Rosenmiiller,  how- 
ever, interprets  c-jpto  not  of 
the  fruit,  but  of  the  flower. 
— Scholia  in  Exod.  xxv.  34. 
2  Fiirst,  Ibid.    s.  v.  "<i^?3, 
'  Corolla,  capitulum,  de  glo- 
bulis  Candelabri  arte  factis, 
qui  teste   Josefo  {Arch.  vi. 
vii.  7)  balaustiorum  seu  ma- 
logranatorum  erant  similes.' 

I    2 


ii6 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


The 
seven - 
branched 
Candle- 
stick. 


on  each  of  the  branches,  and  near  the  top  of  the 
shaft.  A  writer  in  the  Talmud  describes  it  as  the 
sort  of  flower  which  forms  the  capitals  of  columns ; 
and  with  which  indeed  it  well  agrees.^ 

But,  in  the  two  next  verses,  we  have  matters 
not  so  plainly  identified  with  the  other  parts  of  the 

sculptured  figure. 

^  And  in  the  Candlestick  shall  be  four  bowls 
made  like  unto  almonds,  with  their  knops  and 
their  flowers.  And  there  shall  be  a  knop  under 
two  branches  of  the  same,  and  a  knop  under  two 
branches  of  the  same,  and  a  knop  under  two 
branches  of  the  same,  according  to  the  six  branches 
that  proceed  out  of  the  Candlestick.'  ^ 

Here  the  Candlestick  evidently  means  the  up- 
right shaft  or  column  only,  as  forming  its  chief 
part  and  stay ;  and  it  seems  from  these  verses  that 
in  the  original  Candlestick  in  the  Tabernacle,  these 
ornaments  must  have  been  repeated  under  each 


1  Gesenius,  Lex.  Heir. 
nnc.  Furst,  s.  v.  remarks, 
probably  in  reference  to  the 
passage  cited  by  Reland  from 
the   Talmud :    '  Flos,    non- 


nunquam  de  ornamento  ar- 
chitectonice.'      The    LXX. 
often  render  it  Kpivov. 
2  Exodus  XXV.  34,  35- 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


117 


pair  of  branches,  as  we  see  them  upon  the  upper  And  order 

for  its  con- 
part  of  the  shaft.     Here  the  sculptured  figure  fails  stmction. 

us.  The  Candlestick,  made  by  the  last  restorers, 
was  probably  wanting  in  these  decorations,  or  we 
may  conclude  that  the  sculptor  would  not  have 
omitted  so  obvious  an  improvement  of  the  whole 
figure ;  though  there  is  some  reason  to  complain 
of  a  want  of  precision  in  some  of  the  minor  details 
of  his  work.^ 

We  have  only  to  add  a  word  or  two  on  the 
Pedestal,  which  seems  to  be  entirely  a  piece  of 
Roman  work,  and  must  have  been  utterly  unlike 
the  original.  Nothing  is  said  in  the  ritual  of  this 
part  of  the  Candlestick ;  but  we  learn  from  Jewish 
writers  that  it  stood  on  three  k^t^  and  that  the 
priests  who  had  the  charge  of  it  had  to  mount  up 
several  steps  to  set  its  lamps  in  order.^  It  must 
evidently,  therefore,  have  been  much  more  ele- 
vated than  this  figure  would  lead  one  to  expect. 


^  Reland  instances  espe- 
cially the  want  of  uniformity 
in  the  lower  branches  of  the 
Candlestick. — DeSpoliis,  pp. 

7,  39.  59- 


2  Pfeiffer,  De  Struct.  Temp. 
vii.  4.  0pp.  Philol.  p.  224  ; 
also  Jarchi's  Comment,  on 
Exodus  XXV.  31,  in  Rosen- 
miiller's  Scholia,\Q\.  i.  p.  588. 


ii8 


THE  ARCH   OF  TITUS 


The 
seven- 
branched 
Candle- 
stick. 


The  original  base  was  probably  lost  amongst 
the  plunder  of  the  Temple,  and  the  one  here 
represented  may  have  been  substituted  for  it,  for 
the  purpose  of  its  being  carried  in  the  pomp. 
Or,  it  is  not  improbable  that  this  sculptured 
pedestal  may  have  originated  entirely  with  the 
artist  who  executed  the  tablet,  and  who  added  it 
merely  to  complete  his  work;  together  with  the 
common  forms  of  decoration,  which  we  see  upon 
the  lower  parts  of  the  Pedestal ;  especially  the 
eagles  with  garlands  in  their  beaks.  Certainly 
neither  these  nor  the  anomalous  figures  near  them 
could     have    found    admission     into    the     Holy 

Place.^ 

And  here  ends  our  present  inquiry.  Nor  need 
we  ask,  as  in  reference  to  the  Table,  what  was  the 
use  of  this  great  Candlestick;    for  it  formed  the 


^  The  Jewish  doctors,  ac- 
cording to  Josephus,  pro- 
nounced it  to  be  unlawful, 
Kara  tov  vaov  f/  eiKorag  y  nrpo- 

TOfldg    V     ^WOV    TtVOf    ETTtJPVfiOV 

epyov  ^vai.  Jud.  IS  ell.  I. 
xxxiii.  2.  These  figures  on 
the  Pedestal  were  probably 


nothing  more  than  a  Liisus 
sailptoris,  as  Reland  calls 
them.  The  circumstance, 
that  the  eagle  was  the  Roman 
iiyefjioviag  TeKfitiptoVj  may  pro- 
bably account  for  its  intro- 
duction here. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


119 


onlv  lieht  of  the  Holy  Place,  which,  without  it,  its  use  and 

Jo  J  mystery. 

would  have  been  in  total  darkness.  Yet,  so 
entirely  was  the  Tabernacle  and  its  furniture 
pervaded  by  an  intelligent  and  acknowledged  sym- 
bolism, that,  although  we  cannot  concur  in  the 
mystic  fancies  and  ethnical  interpretations  of  Philo 
and  Josephus,  there  is  much  to  induce  us  to 
regard  this  Candelabrum  as  an  eminent  figure  of 
that  Divine  illumination,  with  which  the  Church 
has  been  enriched  in  all  ages  by  the  Lord  and 
Giver  of  the  Light  of  Life.^ 

In  the  number  of  its  branches,  so  studiously 
constructed,  we  have  the  Church's  well-known 
covenant   signature;^    and   in  the  pure  oil,  with 


^  *  Septem  illae  lampades/ 
says  Vitringa  on  J^ez'.  i.  20, 
*  tam  Candelabri  Mosaici 
typici,  quam  mystici  illius 
Candelabri,  quod  Zacharise 
invisione  exhibitum  est,  baud 
dubie  respiciunt  Ecclesiam 
Catholicam,  a  Verbo  et  Spi- 
ritu  Dei  illuminandam  per 
omnia  illius  tempora  et  sta- 
tus.'— Anacrisis  Apoc.  p.  35. 

'^  '  Numerus     sanctus    et 


T€\€(T(p6po<s,'  says  Fiirst. :  Vel. 
Test.  Concord,  s.  v.  5?2^ : 
also  s.  V.  3^ll^,  Jiirare^  and 
the  places  where  it  occurs. 
See  also  a  comprehensive 
and  interesting  account  of 
the  *  symbolic  dignity '  of 
this  Number,  in  Archbishop 
Trench's  Com77ientary  o?i  the 
Epistles  to  the  Seven  Churches, 
pp.  57-64.  . 


I20 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  121 


Its  use  and  which  they  were  supplied,    we   have    the  sacred 

inystery, 

symbol  of  the  Unction  of  the  Holy  One.  Thus 
the  Candlestick  became  an  instructive  emblem  of 
the  covenant  people  in  their  special  character  as 
the  receivers  and  dispensers  of  the  Light  of  Life.* 
And  it  suggests  to  all,  who  are  children  of  the 
Light,  that,  wherever  Christ  has  placed  this  Can- 
dlestick,— this  Light  of  the  world,  as  He  calls 
his  disciples, — there  no  spiritual  darkness  should 
be  found,  but  the  Light  of  the  knowledge  of 
Him  and  of  his  ways ;  in  which  it  is  their 
highest  dignity  and  duty,  as  his  Church  and 
representatives,  to  flourish  and  abound. 

31.  As  regards  the  value  of  these  Sculptures — 
as  authentic  records  of  Jewish  antiquities,  of  which 
we  possess  no  other  copies,  as  illustrations  of  our 
Lord's  prophecy,  and  confirmations  of  a  great  his- 
toric fact, — few  persons  will  be  disposed  to  question 
their  importance.  And  though  we  cannot  suppose 
that  any  of  the  originals,  from  which  the  artist 
made    his    designs,    were    actually   the   work   of 

^  Hengstenberg  On  the  tench,  by  Ryland,  vol.  ii. 
Genuineness    of  the    Penta-      p.  528. 


General 
Inference 
as  to  the 
Spoils. 


Bezaleel  and  Aholiab,  or  formed  a  part  of  the  General 

Inference 

furniture  of  the  Tabernacle, — who   can  look  at  ^^  ^°  ^^^ 

Spoils. 

them  without  feeling,  that  their  prototypes  are 
undoubtedly  to  be  found  in  those  old  records  of 
the  Hebrew  ritual, — the  books  of  Exodus  and 
Leviticus?  They  take  their  origin  from  those 
venerable  ordinances,  which  were  delivered  up- 
wards of  three  thousand  years  ago :  they  remind 
us  of  that  solemn  archetypal  voice,  which  followed 
the  delivery  of  their  models  to  Moses, — ^  See  that 
thou  make  all  things  according  to  the  pattern 
showed  to  thee  in  the  Mount/  ^ 

32.  On  quitting  these  sculptured  memorials  it  whatbe- 

.  came  of 

IS  obvious  to  ask,  what  became  of  their  originals  ?  them  ? 
What  did  the  conquerors  do  with  these  spoils, 
after  they  had  enriched  their  transitory  triumph, 
and  had  feasted  the  eyes  of  the  heathen  multi- 
tude ;  who  probably  regarded  them  as  nothing 
more  than  the  relics  of  the  worship  of  another  of 
those  deities  who  had,  from  time  to  time,  sub- 
mitted to  the  Roman  War-god,  being  unable  to 
protect  their  worshippers  ? 

2iZ'  Before,  however,  we  answer  this  question, 
^  Exodus  XX.  40.     Hebrews  viii.  5. 


i» 


I 


.i 


wimmmi 


122 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


A  query 
by  Fuller. 


Their 
sojourn 
at  Rome. 


we  may  notice  another,  which  Fuller  suggests,  in 
immediate  connexion  with  this  inquiry;  and  it 
cannot    be    answered   in    better   words   than    his 

own. 

'  We  read/  says  he,  '  what  befel  Belshazzar, 
when  he  quaffed  in  the  vessels  of  the  Temple. 
Some  perchance  might  have  expected  that  God,  to 
punish  the  profanation  of  these  holy  instruments, 
should  then  have  showed  some  signal  judgment  on 
the  profaners.  But  the  case  was  altered ;  the  date 
of  ceremonies  was  then  expired,  the  use  of  types 
had  ended,  Christ,  the  Truth,  being  come ;  and 
the  moon  may  set  obscurely  without  any  man's 
taking  notice  of  her,  when  the  sun  is  risen.' ^ 

34.  Josephus  tells  us,  that  after  the  triumph, 
Vespasian  built  a  temple  to  Peace ;  and  that  there, 
amongst  other  trophies  of  his  conquests,  he  depo- 
sited the  vessels  that  had  been  taken  from  the 
Temple  :  the  Law  and  the  vails  or  curtains  of 
the  Sanctuary  he  ordered  to  be  laid  up  in  the 
imperial  palace.^ 

This    Temple    of    Peace    was,    according    to 

^  Pisgah-Sight  of  Palestine^  v.  19,  p.  179. 
'^  Bell.Jud.  VII.  V.  7. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  123 

Herodian,    the    largest   and   the    most   beautiful  Their 

sojourn 

work  of  art  in  Rome  ;  the  richest  also  in  its  ^^  ^°°^^* 
endowments.-^  Different  opinions  have,  however, 
been  formed  of  Vespasian's  design  in  its  erection. 
Some  writers  say  that  his  only  object  was  to  leave 
a  memorial  of  his  successful  career,  and  of  the 
settlement  of  the  imperial  crown  in  his  family. 
Others  say,  that  he  affected  nothing  less  than  the 
character  and  the  honours  of  that  great  Person- 
age who  had  been  expected  to  spring  out  of 
Judaea,  and  to  carry  his  peaceful  dominion  to  the 
ends  of  the  world.-  A  delusion  into  which  he  may, 
perhaps,  have  fallen,  when  he  found  it  adopted,  as 
we  have  seen  it  was,  by  one  who  had  already  pre- 
dicted his  elevation  to  the  throne  ;^  and  who  was 


^  Herodian,  Hist.   lib.   i. 
cap.  xiv. 

^  See  the  statements  of 
Castalio  and  Baronius  in  Pi- 
tiscus'  edition  of  Suetonius, 
Tit.  Flav.  Vesp.  cap.  ix.,  note 
by  the  editor.  But  Castaho's 
inference,  in  favour  of  the 
former  of  these  opinions, 
cannot  be  sustained  by  the 
Inscription  on  which  he  rests 


it ;  as  may  be  seen  by  re- 
ference to  the  entire  Inscrip- 
tion in  Gruter's  Co7'pus  In- 
script.,  tom.  i.  p.  ccxxxix. 

^  %v  fikvj  eLTTEv,  Oveo-Tramavk, 
vofiL^eLS  al^QidXiOTOv  avrov  fiC- 
vov  Ei\r]^€vai  tov  'lujarjirov ' 
eyu)  ce  ayyeXos  rjKO)  croL  />ift^o- 
VQ)v.  .  .  .  Aean76Trj<;  jxev  yap 
ov  luovop  efxov  gv  Katcra^,  aXKd 
KUL  yrjs  Kal  Oa\do-ar]<;  kol  Tray- 


i 

1) 


i 


124 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


125 


Their 
sojourn 
at  Rome. 


too  ready  to  foster  the  suggestion  of  his  heathen 
flatterers, — That  there  was  nothing  beyond  the 
reach  of  his  high  destiny ;  nothing,  after  all  the 
good  fortune  that  had  befallen  him,  too  great  to 
be  believed.^ 

This  temple  was,  however,  but  a  short-lived 
monument,  whatever  may  have  been  the  object 
in  erecting  it.  It  lasted  but  Httle  longer  than  a 
century  :  but  even  that  was  longer  than  the  Flavian 
dynasty,  which  came  to  so  ignoble  an  end  in 
Domitian.  It  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  the  reign 
of  Commodus,  in  a  manner  that  could  not  be 
accounted  for,  and  which  w^as  considered  as  omi- 
nous of  the  disastrous  times  that  ensued.^  It  was 
burnt  to  the  ground  ;*  and  could  not,  therefore, 
have  been  that  building  whose  ruins  bore  so  long 
the   name  of  Vespasian's  Temple  of  Peace,  and 


ros  avOptJTTiDV  yivovc.  .  .  .  Kara 
fjLLKpov  Be  ek  iritrriv  vir-qyeTO. 
Bell.Jud.  III.  viii.  9. 

1  '  Ciincta  Fortunae  suae 
patere  ratus,'  says  Tacitus, 
'  nee  quidquam  ultra  incredi- 
bile.' — Hist.  iv.  Ixxxi.  Such, 
too,    was  the   notion  under 


which  Vespasian,  when  in 
Egypt,  was  prevailed  upon 
to  try  his  hand  at  miracles, 
just  after  he  had  been  raised 
to  the  empire  by  the  voice 
of  his  legions. 

2  Herodian,   Hist.  lib.   i. 
cap.  xiv. 


have  hardly  lost  it  even  now.     If,  however,  we  Their 

sojourn 

may  credit  later  writers,  the  Jewish  spoils  did  not  ^^  ^°"^^- 

perish   with  this   temple  :     but    how   they   were 

saved,   and  where   they   were   deposited,    till  we 

hear  of  them  again,  we  know  not/ 

n^t^.  As  for  the  story,  still  current  in  Rome,  and  a  doubt- 
ful story. 

which  has  been  referred  to  in  some  recent  works,^  a.d.  312. 
— that  the  golden  Candlestick  was  lost  in  the  Tiber, 
when  Maxentius,  after  his  defeat  at  Saxa  Rubra, 
was  attempting  to  cross  the  Milvian  bridge, — 
there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  reliable  authority. 
None  is  given  in  the  works  above  mentioned. 
Nor  is  there,  as  I  learn  from  a  friend,  whom  I 
requested  to  examine  the  sculptures  on  the  arch 


1  In  Dyer's  Ruins  of 
Rome,  there  are  some  lines 
on  '  Salem's  sacred  spoils,' 
which  were  deposited  in 
this  Temple  of  Peace;  but, 
amongst  other  mistakes,  he 
says,  that  these  spoils  are 
now  *  entombed  there,  be- 
neath the  sunk  roof.'  With 
most  antiquaries,  up  to  the 
time  of  his  poem,  he  was 
under  the  impression  that 
the  enormous  ruined  vaults, 


on  the  north  of  the  Forum, 
were  the  remains  of  this 
temple.  It  is  now  generally 
held  that  they  are  the  ruins 
of  a  Basilica  of  Constan- 
tine,  and  that  of  Vespasian's 
temple  there  are  no  remains. 
— Burton's  Antiquities,  vol.  i. 
p.  218. 

2  Dean  Stanley's  Eastern 
Church,  Lecture  vi.  p.  226. 
Dr.  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible,  vol.  i.  p.  250. 


■  I 

I 


n 


b 


( 


126 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


A  doubt- 
ful story. 

A.D.  312. 


Further 
history  of 
the  Spoils. 


Their 
transfer 
into 
Africa. 

A.D.  455. 


of  Constantlne, — where,  if  anywhere,  we  might 
expect  to  find  it, — any  trace  of  this  story ;  though 
Constantine's  arch  was  built  to  commemorate  this 
very  victory  at  the  Milvian  bridge,  and  he  is 
represented,  on  one  of  its  bas-reliefs,  as  bearing 
down  upon  Maxentius,  who  is  struggling  under- 
neath him  in  the  river* 

36.  But  though  we  must  question  the  truth  of 
this  story,  we  have  other  information  as  to  the 
fate  of  these  Spoils,  which  is  entitled  to  much 

more  credit. 

We  are  told  by  Theophanes  that,  on  the  third 
day  after  that  on  which  the  emperor  Maximus 
was  killed,  Genseric,  the  Vandal,  having  entered 
Rome,  sent  on  shipboard  all  the  money  that 
he  found  there,  and  the  most  remarkable  things 
in  the  city;  amongst  which  there  were  certain 
golden  treasures  and  jewels,  that  had  belonged  to 
the  churches,  and  Hebrew  vessels  which  Titus,  after 
the  capture  of  Jerusalem,  had  brought  to  Rome ; 
and,  taking  with  him  Eudoxia,  the  queen,  and 
her  daughters,  he  sailed  away  with  them  to  Africa.^ 

1  'O  Se  Ti^epLXOQ  /xiyScvoc  "Pio^rjv  Trjy.  rjfiiparfiga-cliayfiQ 
uuTw  aiTLffrdvroQ,  dcriiXOey  elg      Ma^i/xov,  Knl  Xa/Bwv  Travra  ra 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


127 


37.  Another  notice  of  Jewish  spoils,  about  half  other 

spoils  in 

a   century   later   than    the    preceding,   occurs   in  France. 

.  A.D.  509. 

Procopius's  History  of  the  Gothic  War,  He  states, 
in  his  account  of  the  exploits  of  Theodoric,  that 
the  old  town  Carcaso,  in  Languedoc,  then  in  the 
hands  of  the  Visigoths,  was  vigorously  besieged 
by  a  body  of  Germans,  in  consequence  of  a  report 
that  royal  treasures  were  concealed  there,  which 
Alaric  the  elder  had  brought  from  Rome;  and 
that  amongst  them  there  were  costly  things  which 
had  once  belonged  to  Solomon,  and  many  other 
articles,  adorned  with  precious  stones,  which  the 
Romans  had  formerly  brought  from  Jerusalem. 
We  are  not  told  how  far  this  report  was  true,  as 
to  the  treasures  being  Jewish  treasures ;  but  that, 
on  the  arrival  of  Theodoric,  who  came  to  protect 
the  rights  of  his  grandson,  the  city  was  relieved 
of  its  besiegers;   and  that,  after  his  return  from 


XPVf^ara,  kol  to.  ttjq  TroXcwy 
OcdfxaTa  elg  ra  7rXo7a  ijji/SaXioVj 
€v  OLQ  rjaav  KeLfjujXia  oXoxpvcra 
KOL  SidXida  €KKXr)ata(mKd,  kol 
aK€u7j  ^EPpaLKoi,  drrcp  Ovecnra- 
(Tiavov  Tltoq  fJLerd  tyjv  dXioo-iv 
Icpvo-oXvfidiv  clg  *P(o/x.?;j/  ^'yaye, 


(Tvr  TOVTOig  XajStJV  kol  Evdoiiav 
Tyv  f^amXio-crav,  kol  rdg  Ovya- 
TC/oac  avrrjg,  elg  'A^piKrjv  dire- 
TrXcuo-c. — Theophanis  Chrono- 
graphia,  Corpus  Byzant.  Hist. 
torn.  vi.  p.  75. 


\ 


> 


128 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


Further 
transfer 
to  Byzan- 
tium. 

A.D.  534. 


f  . 


Other    conquests,   he   carried  off  the  treasures  to 

Ravenna/ 

.38.  What  became  of  these  treasures  does  not 
appear.  But,  with  regard  to  the  spoils  before 
mentioned,  which  Genseric  had  carried  away  into 
Africa,  we  have  further  information  in  another 
work  of  Procopius. 


^  KapKacnavrjv  ^€  TroXXfj 
(TTTOV^rj  kiroXiopKoW  iir^i  top 
paaiXtKov  irXovrov  ivravda 
e:rvdovTO  elvat,  ov  Srj  Iv  Toig 
avo)  xpovoig  'AXapixoQ  o  irpea- 
pvTaTOc,  'FiopL-qv  kXiijv,  iXiyt- 
caTO.  cv  rote  rjv  kol  to.  %o- 
XopuDVOQ  Tov  'EjjpaLuyv  fiaoTL- 
Xiuyg  KeLfi-qXia  a^ioOeara  kcra- 
yavoi^a.       irpaata    yap    XiOog 

avTOJV    TO,    TToXXa    €KaXXu)7rit,€Vf 

airep     c^    'iepoaoXvpLwv      Pw- 

fxaiOL  TO   TToXaiov    elXov 

XprjfiaTa  re  XajSwv  ^v/xTravra, 
oca  €V  ttoXel  KapKatriaprj  eK€LTO, 
€C  "Pdpevvav  Kara  raxog  uTrq- 
Xavv€v. — Z>e  Bello  Gothico ; 
Corpus  Byzant.  Hist.  torn, 
ii.  p.  25.  Reland  cites  only 
the  first  portion  of  these  pas- 
sages (part  of  which  seems  to 
be  incurably  corrupt),  omit- 


ting the  transfer  to  Ravenna ; 
probably  from  mere  inadver- 
tence, as  it  stands  at  some 
distance    from    the    former 
part.    As,  however,  he  places 
it    just  before  the   account 
of    Genseric's   spoliation,  it 
looks,   in  his   narrative,   as 
if   these   spoils  at   Carcaso 
might    have   gone   back   to 
Rome,  and  have  been  even 
the  very  spoils  which  Gen- 
seric  found   there  :  whereas 
Genseric's  sack  of  Rome  was 
in  A.D.   455,  the   very  year 
of  the  birth  of  Theodoric ; 
whose  interposition  in  behalf 
of  his  grandchild,  the  son  of 
Alaric  the  Second,  was,  as  we 
have  seen,   some  fifty  years 
later,  about  a.d.  509. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


129 


He    tells    us,    i„   his   History   of  the    Vandal  Their 
IVar,  that,  after  the  subjugation    of  the  Vandals  "tL'^. 
m  Africa,  Belisarius   came  with    Gelimer,  and  a    ^''''^^^' 
large  amount  of  spoils,  to  Byzantium,  and  there 
enacted   something   of  what   the  Romans  call  a 
triumph :  yet  not  exactly  in  their  ancient  fashion  ; 
for  he  went  on  foot  from  his  house  to  the  palace,' 
with  the  thrones  and  chariots  of  the  Vandal  queen,' 
and  with  the  spoils  which  Genseric  had  carried  off 
from  Rome;   and   that   amongst  them  were  the 
vessels,  which,  on  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
Titus  had  transported  with  other  things  to  Rome.' 
He  adds,  that  a  }^^,  happening  to  see  them,  said 
to  a  person  well  known  to  the  emperor,— That,  in 
his  opinion,  it  was  not  expedient  that  the  spoils 
should  be  taken  into  the  palace;   for  that  they 
could  never  be  kept  in  any  other  place  than  that 
where  of  old  they  had  been  deposited  by  King 
Solomon  [that  is,  supposing    them   to  have  be- 
longed to  the  first  TempleJ  ;  that  this  was   the 
reason  why  Genseric  had  taken  the  Roman  palace, 
and  why  the  Romans  had  now  taken  that  of  the 
Vandals.  The  historian  adds,  that,  on  hearing  these 
words,  the  emperor  (Justinian)  was  alarmed  ;  and       .. 


130 


THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 


Transfer  to  speedllv  sciit    them  all    away   to  the  holy  places 

Byzantium,      r  -^  ^ 

A.D.  534.    of  the  Christians  in  Jerusalem. 

These  appear  to  be  the  last  tidings  of  these 
Spoils :  vague  enough  and  unsatisfactory,  as  to  the 
specific  articles  themselves ;  whether  they  consisted 
up  to  this  period,  of  all  those  articles  to  which  our 


1  I  subjoin  the  whole  pas- 
sage, as  it  is  the  last  account 
of  these  Spoils  ;  and  we  may 
remember  that  the  writer 
was  the  general's  attendant 
and  secretary  :— ^Hv  Se  Xd- 
0vpa  /X£V,  oo-tt  8^  vTTOvpyia  rrj 
jGoo-tXeW  avelaOaL  ciw6€t,  OpovoL 
T€  xpvo-ot,  Kal  6xrit^o.Tay  ote  ^ 
T^v  j8ao-t\eo>c  yvvaiKa  6x^'i-<y0ai 

VO>Oe.        KOI     KOapiOQ     TTOXVG     €/C 
XCdiOV    CVTt/X(OV  (TVyK€ifl€VOg'    CK- 

TTw/xara  t€  xP^o-5,  kol  ra  ciXXa 
$ufnravra,    ocra  cte    t»)v    ^affi- 
\ioi£  Boivqv  xpiqailiO"     V^    ^^ 
Ktti    apyvpog    cXkwv     /xvpiaSag 
raXaVTCov   TroXXae,  kqI  Travrwv 
Twv  fiaaiXiKwv  K€tp.r]Xioiv  7ra/x- 
TToXv  Tt  XP^fta-    5t€  Vt^epixov 
TO  cv  'Pw/xt;  o-c<n;X>7KOToe  iraXd- 
nov,  (oaTTcp  €V  toTc  efnrpoadev 
XoyoiQ  eppeOr]-  h  toIq   koX  ra 
'lovSatwv     K€Lfiil\ia     ^v,    a^rep 


Ov€<T7ra(navov  Titoq   /xcra  t^i' 
Twv    IcpoeroXv/xwv     aXwcrtv    eg 

*Pw/X7?V  t,Vl^  €T€pOlQTi(Tlv  r)V€yK^. 

Kal  avTCL  Tdv  tlq  'lovSaiW  iSwv, 
Kai     Trapacrras     rdv    paaiXeiog 
yvwpLfJioiv   TLVL'  rairra,    €<#"?,  ra 
XPVf^ara    k    ro    kv    Bv^avrto) 
TraXanov    laKop^il^oQciL,    d^vp-- 
<l)opov  otofiai  ilvai.    ov  yap  olov 
T€   aura  erepoyOi  cTvat,  rj  ev  r<3 
Xwp^,    ov     8^    ^oXopiov    avrd 
TrpoTcpov  6  rwv  'lov^aiuv  (jatn- 
Xcvs  €^£ro.      Old  Tovra  yap  Kal 
Ft^cpixoc  Ta*Pa>/xatwv  /jacriXcia 
cTXc,   ml    vvr   Td    BavSiXwv  o 
*Po)/iat(ov  o-rparos.      ravra  iirel 
dv€i/€X0crra  fiaaiXevg  ^kov(T€v' 
^hia€   T€,    Kal  ^vp.Travra   Kara 
rdxoQ  k  rC)v  XpicrTiaviZp  rd  kv 
'Upo(ToXvp,oiQ   Upd  €7r€/x4/€V.— 
Be  Bello  Vandal  lib.  n.  cap. 
ix.     Corpus  Byzant.  tom.  i. 

pp.  39^^  399- 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  131 

attention  has  been  directed ;    as  to  the   mode  of  Transfer  to 

,     .  Byzantium. 

their  conveyance,  and  as  to  the  sacred  places,  to  a.d.  534. 
which  they  are  said  to  have  been  consigned.  Gib- 
bon says,  with  more  than  usual  reverence  for  such 
matters,  if  indeed  he  meant  to  be  reverential,  but 
with  somewhat  less  than  his  usual  accuracy, — '  The 
holy  vessels  of  the  Jewish  Temple,  after  their  long 
peregrination,  were  respectfully  deposited  in  the 
Christian  church  of  Jerusalem/^  He  does  not  say 
what  church,  though  there  must  have  been  many 
churches  at  that  period  in  Jerusalem.  Nor  is  Pro- 
copius  more  explicit.  In  fact,  the  arrival  of  the 
Spoils  at  Jerusalem,  though  not  improbable,  can 
hardly  be  proved.  Not  that  there  are  no  subsequent 
historical  accounts  of  sacred  relics  in  that  city  ; 
for  we  have  notices,  even  in  the  next  century,  of 
many  sacred  things  in  the  churches  at  Jerusalem, 
which  were  plundered  and  carried  oiF  by  the 
Persians  •}  but  there  is  no  mention  of  these  Jewish 


^  Decline  and  Fall,  chap, 
xli.  A.D.  534. 

^  See  Chronicon  Faschale, 
Corpus  Byzant.  Hist,  tom. 
iv.    p.    306 ;    and    Contextio 


Gemmarum,  sive  Eutychii 
Annales,  edited  by  Selden 
and  Pocock,  tom.  ii.  pp.  211 
—215. 


K   2 


% 


132 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


^33 


-V 


Transfer  to  spoils.     So  that  I  cannot  but  concur  with  Reland, 

Byzantium.      ^ 

A.D.  534.  that  this  account  of  their  having  been  despatched 
by  Justinian  are  the  last  tidings  which  we  have  of 
them.^  Whether  they  ever  reached  Jerusalem  is 
uncertain  ;  and  it  is  all  but  certain  that  they  never 
came  back  to  Rome. 

^^.  Adrichomius,  a  writer  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, in  a  work  on  the  Geography  of  the  Holy 
Land,  gravely  tells  us  that  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant,  the  Tables  of  the  Law,  the  Rods  of 
Moses  and  Aaron,  and  some  portions  even  of  the 
Shewbread  were,  in  his  days,  in  the  church  of 
S.  John  Lateran,  in  Rome,^  but  he  says  nothing  of 


Not  in 
Rome. 


1  *  Quid  porro  bis  Spoliis 
accident,  et  an  navis,  cui 
credita  sunt,  in  Palaestinam 
appulsa  sit,  aut  alia  his 
vasis  reditum  prseciderint, 
nos  latet.  Certe  Hieroso- 
lymis  nunc  non  conspici- 
untur.' — Z>e  Spoliis,  p.  138. 

2  ^Quse  quidem  omnia,' 
says  Adrichomius,  '  Area 
videlicet,  auro  tamen  nu- 
data,  Tabulae  Legis,  Virgae 
Moysi    et    Aaronis,    Panes 


quoque  Propositionis,  ac 
quatuor  columnae,  Romae  in 
Ecclesia  S.  Joannis  Lateran- 
ensis  adhuc  conservantur.' 
— Theatruin  Terrce  SanctcE, 
Sect.  77,  p.  159.  The  same 
fabrication  about  the  Ark  is 
also  repeated  by  Minutolius, 
Dissert.  Roman.  Antiq.  Illust. 
in  Sallengre's  Thesaurus,  vol. 
i.  p.  118 ;  and  he  adds,  after 
reciting  the  account  of  Justi- 
nian's despatching  the  spoils 


the  Shewbread  Table,  nor  of  any  of  the  other  spoils  ^ot  in 

^  ^  Rome. 

in  question.  So  that  if  these  relics  really  survived 
the  burning  of  Vespasian's  Temple  of  Peace,  there 
is  probably  some  truth  in  these  accounts  of  their 
having  been  carried  away  from  Rome ;  otherwise, 
we  should  probably  have  heard  of  them  again, 
somewhere  or  other,  in  that  great  storehouse  of 
ecclesiastical  antiquities,  as  well  as  of  the  less 
veritable  relics,  the  Ark,  the  two  Tables,  and  the 
Rods  of  Moses  and  Aaron  ;  for  these  things  are 
admitted  by  the  Jews  to  have  been  lost  on  the 
destruction  of  the  first  Temple. 

40.  Still,  whatever  may  have  become  of  these  The  Arch 

a  Witness. 

Spoils, — whether  there  be  any  truth  or  not  in 
these  stories  of  their  transfer  by  Genseric  into 
Africa,  and  of  their  reappearance  in  a  second 
triumphal  pomp,  in  the  second  great  capital  of 
the  Roman  empire, — these  Sculptures  survive,  and 
have  been  bearing  their  testimony  for  nearly 
eighteen  hundred  years ;  a  record  of  the  desola- 
tion which  our  Lord  foretold  would  come   upon 


to  Jerusalem,  '  Plura  qui  cu- 
pit,  adeat  Lipsium,  De  Mag- 
nit  nd.  Romcc,  lib.  11 1.  c.  vi.' 


This,  however,  is  but  a  false 
light :  I  have  turned  to  Lip- 
sius  :  there  is  nothing  more. 


134 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


The  Arch 
a  Witness. 


Jerusalem  and  upon  her  Temple ;  which  was 
always  deemed  her  proudest  boast,  as  the  palace 
of  the  city  of  the  Great  King.  That  edifice,  which, 
through  all  its  varying  forms  and  fortunes,  was  for 
ages  the  bond  of  national  union,  the  centre  of  the 
affections  of  every  loyal  son  of  Israel ;  and  which 
fell  at  last  only  when  its  faithless  people  fell  away 
from  the  covenant  of  the  God  of  their  fathers ; 
rejecting  the  King  whom  He  had  sent  to  reign 
over  them;  and  scornfully  refusing,  for  forty 
years,  all  offers  of  the  Gospel  of  his  grace,  till 
their  City,  Temple,  Saviour, — all  was  lost.^ 


^  *  Neque  eversa  est  Ju- 
dseorum  respublica,'  says 
Limborch,  'nisi  postquam 
Euangelium  omnibus  qua- 
quaversum  Judaeis  praedi- 
catum,  et  ab  iis  rejectum 
esset ;  ne  quisquam  se  ob 
alterius  crimen,  aut  totum 
populum  ob  Hierosolymi- 
tanorum  solummodo  crimen 
(uti  hie  facit  Vir  doct.) 
puniri  conqueri  posset.  Id- 
que  juxta  vaticinium  Serva- 
toris  nostri  Jesu  Christi, 
Matt.  xxiv.  14  :  "  Et  praedi- 


cabitur      hoc     Euangelium 
Regni    in    universo    orbe " 
(quousque  nempe  Judsei  sunt 
dispersi)    "  in    testimonium 
omnibus    gentibus;"   (quod 
nempe  non  ob  crimen  solum 
Hierosolymitanorum,  sed  to- 
tius  populi  inter  omnes  gen- 
tes  dispersi,  templum  et  res- 
publica evertatur,)  "  et  tunc 
veniet  consummatio."  ' — Dc 
Verit.  Relig.    Christ.  Arnica 
CoUatio  cum   erudito  Judceo, 
Quaist.  II.  cap.  vi.  p.   252. 
See  also  the    remainder   of 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


135 


1^ 


A  I.  We  see  then    how  this  Arch    subserves  a  Subserves 

•  .  a  purpose 

purpose,  which  was  never  thought  of  by  the  ^^^^^^7^^ 
Romans  who  erected  it.  They  built  it  to  perpe-  ^"^^'''^• 
tuate  the  triumph  of  their  arms,  and  of  the  great 
general  who  had  led  them  to  victory.  They  have 
exhibited  him  and  his  victorious  army  in  what 
they  deemed  the  summit  of  human  glory  ;  and 
with  the  view  to  transmit  to  future  times  some 
record  of  the  power  and  splendour  of  that  empire, 
which,  as  it  had  extended  to  the  ends  of  the 
known  world,  they  fondly  thought  would  also  last 
for  ever.  Their  visions  of  glory  have  long  since 
vanished ;  while  these  records  of  their  fallen  power 
and  grandeur  serve  to  establish  the  claims  of  that 
Kingdom,  which  was  destined  to  succeed  their 
fourth  great  monarchy  ;  to  surpass  the  utmost  limits 
of  the  Roman  sway ;  to  be  spread  out  under  the 
whole  heaven ;  an  everlasting  dominion  which  shall 
not  pass  away :'  and  which  had  already  begun,  much 
to  the  annoyance  of  the  votaries  of  Heathendom,^ 


this  able  and  interesting 
answer  to  Orobio :  '  De 
praesenti  Judseorum  disper- 
sione,  et  qua  ratione  in  ea 


ut  populus  separatus  subsis- 
tant.' 

1  Daniel  y\\.  3 — 14. 

■^  Witness  those  indignant. 


"J ;' 


Its  Les- 
sons to  us. 


>" 


136 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


to  take  root  amongst  them  far  and  near,  before  the 
destruction  of  those  typical  services,  which  perished 
for  ever  with  the  Jewish  Temple. 

42.  There  are  also  other  thoughts  that  naturally 
arise,  as  we  look  at  these  memorials  of  a  Church 
and  of  an  Empire  which  have  long  since  passed 
away.  What  a  lesson  do  they  read  to  every 
Christian  nation,  especially-  to  such  a  nation  as 
ours,  to  know  the  times  of  visitation,  to  under- 
stand our  privileges  and  our  duties,  to  see  why 
God  has  so  richly  endowed  us  with  the  light  of 
his  truth  and  the  power  of  diffusing  it ;  to  be  like 
Israel,  a  blessing  in  the  midst  of  the  earth  :  and 
to  know  when  God  is  coming  near  us  in  distress 
of  nations,  tribulation,  perplexity ;  the  shaking 
of  the  powers   of    the   political    firmament,   that 


lines  of  Rutilius  on  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Gospel,  to  the 
extrusion  of  the  gods  of  old 
Rome,  by  despised  and  sub- 
jugated Jews.  'Atque  uti- 
nam  nunquam  Judaea  subacta 
fuisset,  Pompeii  belHs,  im- 
perioque  Titi.  Latius  excisae 
pestis  contagia  serpunt,  Vic- 


toresque  suos  natio  victa 
premit' — Iter.  i.  395.  ^  Would 
that  Judaea  ne'er  had  fallen 
a  prey  To  Pompey's  arms 
and  Titus'  princely  power  ! 
The  exscinded  pest  still 
wider  works  its  way ;  The 
conquered  trample  on  their 
conqueror.' 


\ 


\ 


'J 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


137 


the   Kingdom   that    cannot    be   shaken   may   re-  its  Les- 
sons to  us. 

mam !  ^ 

For  there  are,  no  doubt,  for  every  people,  as 
for  every  soul  of  man,  definite  times  of  visitation, 
of  which  one  must  be  the  last.  Hence  it  concerns 
us  to  mark  and  understand  the  grace  and  mercy  of 
that  visitation,  as  well  as  that  it  has  its  appointed 
limit.^  Jerusalem  unhappily  would  know  neither : 
Jerusalem  was  accordingly  crushed  to  the  earth. 
Her  beautiful  House  was  made  desolate,  her 
children  were  dispersed  throughout  the  world; 
and  so  must  they  continue  till  they  welcome  with 
blessing  the  long-rejected  King  of  Israel.^ 

43.  And  yet,  what  a  striking  contrast  is  their  The 

Romans 

State,  even  m  their  present  fall  and  dispersion,  to  gone— the 

Jews  sur- 

that  of  the  conquerors,  who  erected  this  Arch  ^^^"S- 
to  commemorate  their  domination  over  them! 
Though  no  longer  enjoying  any  political  exist- 
ence, they  exist  as  a  people  in  almost  every  country 
in  the  world ;  in  regions  which  their  conquerors 
never  reached ;  where  not  even  the  Roman  name 
was  known;  bearing  about  with  them  the  same 


1  Luke  xxi.  25 — 27  ;  Heb. 
xii.  26,  27. 


^  Stier  onZ^/^^  xix.43,44. 
^  Matt.  xxii.  7  ;  xxiii.  39. 


ill 


fi 


'1 


); 


U8 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


The 
Romans 


viving. 


distinctive  marks  of  race  and  of  religion,  as  when 
gon"-the  our  Lord  predicted  the  fall  of  their  common- 
^"^''''"  wealth,  and  when  Titus  led  them  through  the 
streets  of  Rome  in  fetters.  They  abide,  as  it  is 
predicted,  ^  they  shall  abide,  many  days,'— now 
the  days  of  nearly  eighteen  hundred  years,— ^with- 
out a  king,  and  without  a  prince,  and  without 
a  sacrifice,  and  without  an  image,  and  without 
an  ephod,  and  without  teraphim/ '  For  they  are 
now  as  adverse  to  all  idol  worship  as  they  were 
prone  to  it  in  former  times. 

44.  But  are  they  to  continue  in  this  state  ? 
Are  they  to  be  merely  witnesses  of  those  glorious 
promises  to  others,  of  which  they  are  not  to  be 
partakers  themselves?  Is  the  Trumpet-call  never 
to  be  heard  again  in  Israel,  summoning  together 
their  scattered  children?  Is  the  light  of  their 
Candlestick  quenched  for  ever?  Is  the  Holy 
Table  never  again  to  be  spread  for  them,  in 
testimony  that  the  Lord  is  keeping  house  amongst 
them ;  feeding  them  with  the  Bread  of  his  pre- 
sence, the  joy  and  strength  of  man's  heart  ? 

^  Hosea  iii.  4. 


To  what 
end  ? 


I. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


139 


Surely,  the  word  of  promise  tells  us,  that  Israel's  To  what 
present  doom    is   not   to    last    for   ever.     ^  They 
shall  seek   the  Lord  their  God,  and  David  their 
King ;   and  shall  fear  the  Lord  and  his  goodness 
in  the  latter  days.'  ^ 

^  It  shall  come  to  pass  that  the  great  Trumpet 
shall  be  blown;' — not  the  silver  trumpet  for  the 
restoration  of  the  Tabernacle,  but  the  great  mystic 
Trumpet  of  the  world's  jubilee  :^ — ^and  they  shall 
come  which  were  ready  to  perish  in  the  land  of 
Assyria,  and  the  outcasts  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  shall  worship  the  Lord  in  the  Holy  Mount  at 
Jerusalem.'  ^ 

The    sacred    Table    shall  be    again  set  up  for 
them, — as  it  is  indeed  for  all  God's  people  now> 


^  Hosea  iii.  5. 

2  That  is,  not  the  Chatzot- 
zerah^  but  the  Shophar ;  as 
it  is  here,  Isaiah  xxvii.  13. 

^  This  is  part  of  a  great 
prophecy  which  seems  to  be- 
long to  the  last  age  of  the 
present  dispensation ;  and 
which  could  not  have  been 
fulfilled,  as  Vitringa  has 
shown,  in  the  days  of  Heze- 


kiah,  nor  in  the  return  from 
Babylon,  nor  as  yet  in  these 
times  of  the  Gospel.  As- 
syria and  Egypt  are  pro- 
bably the  two  great  mystic 
world-powers  which  will  fall 
before  the  final  trumpet-call 
to  Israel.  See  Vitringa  on 
Isaiah  xxvii.  13  ;  and  his 
'ETTt/xcT/oov  ad  cap.  xi.  15,  De 
Assyn'd  mysficd. 


\) 


ft 


s 

I 

\ 


'<  \ 


To  what 
end  ? 


140 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


— in  thankful  remembrance  of  a  greater  redemp- 
tion than  that  of  Israel  by  the  Angel  of  the 
Covenant :  who  still  leads  and  feeds  his  chosen 
in  the  wilderness;  still  sends  them  Bread  from 
heaven,  and  admits  to  communion  and  fellowship 
with  Him,  not  the  members  of  one  tribe  only,  but 
'the  spiritual  house,  the  holy  priesthood'  of  all 
who  are  true  believers  in  his  name.^ 

The  great  Candlestick  shall  be  again  lighted 
up  for  them  with  the  light  of  the  knowledge 
of  God's  glory,  in  Him  who  is  the  very  Light 
of  Light ;  who  walks  in  the  midst  of  his  golden 
candlesticks  ;  whose  light  shall  then  be  seven  times 
multiplied.  '  For  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be 
as  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun 
shall  be  sevenfold,  as  the  light  of  seven  days,  in 
the  day  that  the  Lord  bindeth  up  the  breach  of  his 
people,  and  healeth  the  stroke  of  their  wound. '^ 


^   I  Peter  ii.  5,  9. 


2  Isaiah  xxx.  26. 


AND  THE  SPOILS  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


141 


VESPASIANUS. 


A.U.C.  DCCCXXIV.    A.D.  LXXI. 


TITUS  VESPASIANUS. 


A.U.C.  DCCCXXXIII.     A.D.   LXXX. 


CITED    IN    ILLUSTRATION    OF    THE    FRIEZE,    §    23. 


LONDON 
K.    CLAY,    SON,    ANU    TAYLOK,    PKINTEkS, 
BREAD   STKKET   HIl.L. 


'( 


; 


} 


t:i?'M 


8V6 


Nk'lV 


X- 


Th.t 


C    i 


^ 


M  b   A       '>.    .  t   '^  b  ■ 


■  BPAPIES 


010692223 


^''S,^3&t^^J, 


K-taSwp^^BEjiSig^^H^' 


r^K-, 


:,-;  fl  ■-.ryi-^^^-'^  v««j(55s^jj^jj,B.3^. 


;  V '   ''    I  ■  •„  , 


;.Vi>-*-  r„H-,»-,..J.-_*.^  .-  ^ij^,,  ^,  .«  , 


^^W.Vje    .i 


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